acuto

Forms

acuto (feminine acuta, masculine plural acuti, feminine plural acute, superlative acutissimo)^[1] Older forms include Old Italian aguto (Lucchese and Sienese), Old Italian auto (Tuscan) and Old Italian aguo (Old Genoese).^[2][3] The Lombard poets of the 13th century wrote Old Italian agudo and Old Italian agù.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin acūtus (“sharp, pointed”), the past participle of acuō (“to sharpen”).^[5][6][7][1] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli derive the verb from acus (“needle”).^[6][8] Wiktionary traces it, probably, to a u-stem adjective Proto-Indo-European *h₂eḱus (“sharp”), from the root *h₂eḱ- (“sharp”).^[1]

The Latin adjective lives on in every Romance language except Romanian: French aigu, Old Occitan agut, Catalan agut, Spanish agudo and Portuguese agudo, and in Campidanese Sardinian it became agudu “peg”.^[4][9][6] The Italian forms of the type Old Italian aguto, with the voiced consonant, show the sound changes of northern Italy, according to the LEI.^[4] The old form was also a noun meaning a long thin nail, a sense that Old Occitan agut has as well.^[2][10][11] A Late Latin verb acūtāre “to sharpen” survives in some dialects, such as Venetian guar “to whet”.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cremonese Libro of Uguccione da Lodi at the beginning of the 13th century, in the sense “pointed, ending in a sharp tip”.^[3][4] DELI dates the Tuscan acuto “pointed, piercing” to Brunetto Latini, who died in 1294.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the physical sense the word passed early to the mind: Dante uses it of a fine, keen intelligence, and Jacopone da Todi of a shrewd person.^[5][4] In Old Italian it was also said of a high, shrill voice or sound, of sour wine and unripe fruit, of intense light and of a fever that runs a short, violent course.^[3][4] Dante's febbre aguta is an early example of the medical sense.^[12]

Geometry named the angle smaller than a right angle acuto (Leonardo, before 1519), grammar the accent that marks a closed e or o (Salviati, before 1589), and architecture the pointed arch, arco acuto or a sesto acuto (1797).^[5] As a noun, acuto is the highest note of a song (De Marchi, before 1901), and by extension any outstanding performance, especially in sport.^[5][13][7] Medicine opposes acuto to cronico, and politics speaks of an acuta tension or crisis.^[13][14]

As a musical term the word was borrowed into French in 1703 and into German in 1732.^[15]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Lombard agù “pointed” appears in Uguccione da Lodi.^[3][4]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses acuto “pointed, piercing”.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for a keen, subtle mind.^[5]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio uses it of a high-pitched tone.^[5]
• 1494 – Luca Pacioli has an early, unclear use of the accent sense.^[5]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo da Vinci speaks of an angolo acuto.^[5]
• 1703 – French borrows the musical term.^[15]
• 1797 – The pointed arch is first called acuto.^[5]
• Before 1901 – Emilio De Marchi uses the noun for the top note of a song.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. sharp, pointed: ending in a fine point: una lama acuta.^[7][16][12]
2. (geometry) Of an angle: smaller than a right angle.^[7][16][14]
3. (architecture) Of an arch: pointed, formed by two arcs meeting at an apex (arco a sesto acuto).^[16][13][8]
4. (figurative) Keen, penetrating, of the senses: un udito acuto.^[7][12]
5. (figurative) shrewd, perceptive, astute, of a person, mind or remark.^[7][16][13]
6. (figurative) Intense, piercing, of a sensation or feeling: una nostalgia acuta.^[7][8][13]
7. Critical, at its most serious, of a situation: la crisi è entrata nella fase acuta.^[7][13][14]
8. (medicine) Of a disease: running a rapid, violent course, as opposed to cronico (acute).^[7][13][16]
9. (acoustics, music) Of a sound or note: high, of high frequency.^[7][16][14]
10. (grammar) accento acuto: the acute accent (´), marking a closed vowel in Italian.^[16][14][17]

Noun

1. (music) A high note, the top note of a singer's part: il soprano ha fallito l'acuto finale.^[7][16][14]
2. (figurative) An outstanding performance, especially in sport.^[7][16][13]

Word family

• acutezza
• acutamente
• acutangolo
• acutizzare
• acutizzazione
• acuzie
• subacuto
• sopracuto
• iperacuto

Related words

• bisacuto
• acuire
• aguzzo
• ago
• Latin acūtus
• French aigu

Usage notes

The superlative is acutissimo.^[1] In Old Italian aguto could also mean a nail.^[2][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 53
3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
4. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 585
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
12. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli