allattate

Allattate is a form of the Italian verb allattare, which means to breastfeed. The word has two main grammatical uses in contemporary Italian: as the second-person plural imperative and as the feminine plural past participle.

As an imperative, allattate is used to give a command or instruction to a group of people to breastfeed, often in caregiving or medical contexts. For example: Allattate i vostri bambini regolarmente. Allattate con calma e pazienza. In this sense it functions like a direct instruction to “you all” to perform the action of breastfeeding.

As a past participle, allattate also appears in compound tenses and in passive or passive-like constructions when it agrees with a feminine plural noun. For instance: Le bambine sono state allattate; Le madri hanno allattato le loro figlie, where the form allattate reflects agreement with a feminine plural direct object preceding the verb. Because the form is identical to the imperative, context usually clarifies whether it is a command or a participle.

Etymology is linked to the root associated with milk and lactation, and allattare itself derives from Italian linguistic developments related to feeding and milk production, with a semantic connection to lat(te) and latte.

See also: allattamento (breastfeeding), latte (milk), lattazione, puericultura.

In summary, allattate can mean either “you all breastfeed” (imperative) or “breastfed”/“were breastfed” when used as a feminine plural past participle, with meaning determined by context.