gaietto
Italian edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Borrowed from Occitan caiet (“spotted”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
gaietto (feminine gaietta, masculine plural gaietti, feminine plural gaiette)
- (archaic) spotted, speckled
- Synonym: maculato
- mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto I”, in Inferno [Hell][1], lines 40–42; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate][2], 2nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:
- mosse di prima quelle cose belle;
sì ch’a bene sperar m’era cagione
di quella fiera a la gaetta pelle- At first in motion set those beauteous things;
so were to me occasion of good hope,
the variegated skin of that wild beast, […]
- At first in motion set those beauteous things;
- (of a horse's coat) shiny black
Further reading edit
- gaiétto in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana