What does 'quattro' mean in Italian?

What does “quattro” mean in Italian? It means “four.”

Audi chose the word because its quattro system sends engine power to all four wheels. The name was introduced with the Audi Quattro, a performance coupé unveiled in 1980, and it became one of the company’s best-known technology trademarks.

The term is Italian, not German or Latin. It is also sometimes confused with “quattro” referring specifically to the car model, but Audi uses the name both for its all-wheel-drive technology and for vehicles equipped with it. The original road car is often called the Ur-quattro, using the German prefix “Ur-” to mean original or primordial.

The technology gained exceptional attention through rallying. Audi’s four-wheel-drive competition cars demonstrated that power delivered to four driven wheels could improve traction on loose surfaces, helping reshape modern rally-car design. The four-ring logo separately represents Audi, DKW, Horch, and Wanderer, not the literal meaning of quattro.