amarezza

Forms

amarezza f (plural amarezze)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian amareza, Old Italian amareça and Old Italian amaressa.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin amaritia (“bitter taste”), an abstract noun from Latin amārus (“bitter”).^{[4][3][5][6][7][8][2]} Classical Latin had amāritiēs, found once in Catullus.^[4][9][10] Devoto–Oli and Wiktionary treat the Italian word instead as a derivative of amaro with the suffix -ezza.^[11][1]

The Late Latin noun also survives as Romanian amăreață and Old Occitan amareza “sadness”.^[3][4] Northern France has instead French amertume, from Latin amāritūdō, and Spanish amargor, Catalan amargor and Portuguese amargor are new formations.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's first record is Giacomo da Lentini (before 1250), with the sense “bitter thing”, as amareza or amareça in different manuscripts.^[3] DELI dates it to the 13th century (Fatti di Cesare), with the senses “bitter taste” and, above all, “grief mixed with resentment”.^[12] The TLIO's first record is Guittone's letters in prose (before 1294), in the figurative sense of suffering.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “affliction, grief, resentful anger” is in Neri Visdomini in the second half of the 13th century and in Jacopone from 1306, and it has been the main sense ever since.^[3][12] The literal taste is recorded in Bencivenni in the first half of the 14th century, for bitterness in the mouth.^[3][9] Della Casa (1554) and Magalotti (before 1712) used it for harshness or severity.^[3]

Tommaseo records bere al calice delle amarezze, “to drink from the cup of bitterness”, for bearing sorrows.^[13][3] The plural amarezze names the troubles that cause grief.^[14][5] The dialects have the word too, as in Neapolitan amarizze (1748) and Sicilian amarizza.^[3]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses amareza.^[3]
• Second half of the 13th century – Neri Visdomini uses it for grief.^[3]
• Before 1294 – Guittone uses it in his prose letters.^[2]
• 1306 – Jacopone uses amarezza figuratively.^[3]
• First half of the 14th century – Bencivenni uses it for a bitter taste.^[3]
• 1554 – Della Casa uses it for harshness.^[3]
• 1865 – Tommaseo records bere al calice delle amarezze.^[3][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (uncommon) bitterness, a bitter taste: l'amarezza del caffè senza zucchero.^{[5][6][7][14]}
2. (figurative) Sadness mixed with disappointment or resentment: Ha lasciato la squadra con grande amarezza.^{[5][6][7][14]}
3. (chiefly plural) A painful experience, a sorrow: La vita gli ha riservato molte amarezze.^[5][14][1]

Related words

• amaro
• Latin amārus
• French amertume

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 486
4. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 151
5. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)