gaietto

Italian

Alternative forms

• gaetto (Dantesque)

Etymology

Borrowed from Occitan caiet (“spotted”). (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡaˈjet.to/
• Rhymes: -etto
• Hyphenation: ga‧iét‧to

Adjective

gaietto (feminine gaietta, masculine plural gaietti, feminine plural gaiette)

1. (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], 2^nd 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, […]

2. (of a horse's coat) shiny black

Further reading

• gaiétto in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana