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amore

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Pronunciation

Forms

amore m (countable and uncountable, plural amori)[1] Old forms include Old Italian amor, amuri and ammore.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin amor (“love”), from the accusative ⟨amorem⟩.[3][4][5][1] The Latin noun is formed from amō (“to love”) with the suffix -or, as clāmor is from clāmō.[3][6][7]

The word is continued in nearly all the Romance languages, but not in Romanian: Old French amor, Occitan amor, Catalan amor, Spanish amor and Portuguese amor, and Dalmatian amáur.[8][4][9] Old French also had ⟨ameur⟩, which early took the sense “rut, heat”;[10][4] Meyer-Lübke and Nocentini think the modern French amour spread from Occitan, the language of the troubadours, so that the word for refined love stayed apart from the animal sense.[10][4] The noun is feminine in Old French until the 17th century, in Old Catalan and in many Italian dialects.[8][10]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to Proto-Italic *ama- (“to take, hold”), which he connects with Proto-Indo-European *h₃mh₃- (“to take hold of”), the root of Ancient Greek ὄμνυμι (ómnumi, “to swear”): the Latin meaning would have gone from “to take someone's hand” to “to regard as a friend”.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Contrasto of the troubadour Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, about 1190, where a Genoese woman speaks in her own dialect;[2][4] the TLIO's first sense is the feeling of one who desires or has an intimate and exclusive bond, spiritual or physical, with another person.[2] DELI's first record is in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, for a deep affectionate inclination towards someone or something.[3]

Semantic evolution

In the poetry of the Sicilian School and its successors the word was at the centre of courtly love: the phrase fino amore “pure love” and ioi d'amuri “joy of love” are key terms of troubadour lyric, taken from Old Occitan fin'amors and joy d'amor.[8][2] The god of love appears as a person, as in Petrarch, and the TLIO already records the word as a name for the beloved and for sexual love, often judged harshly, and for the mating impulse of animals.[2][5] Dante ends the Commedia with God as l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle “the love that moves the sun and the other stars”.[5][12]

Derivatives followed early: amoroso “lover” in Giacomo da Lentini, amorevole “loving” in Brunetto Latini, amorazzo “a low affair” in Boccaccio (1353), amorino “painted or carved cupid” in Firenzuola (1540–1541) and amoreggiare “to flirt” in 1664.[3] The northern dialects have moroso “sweetheart”, from the same adjective.[4][10] Fare l'amore once meant to court or be engaged to someone, a sense now disused, and today means to have sex.[13][14]

Wiktionary records borrowings of the word into Greek and Portuguese.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 1190 – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras writes amore in the Genoese part of his Contrasto.[2][4]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses amore and amoroso.[3]
  • Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses amorevole.[3]
  • 1321 – Dante ends the Paradiso with the love that moves the sun and the stars.[5]
  • 1353 – Boccaccio uses amorazzo.[3]
  • 1540–1541 – Firenzuola calls a painted or carved cupid an amorino.[3]
  • 1664 – Amoreggiare is first recorded, in Carlo Roberto Dati.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Deep affection for someone, as between parents and children or brothers and sisters: l’amore di una nonna per i nipoti.[5][15][16]
  2. love, intense and exclusive feeling for another person, based on desire and affection: un amore non corrisposto.[5][13][15]
  3. (by extension) Sexuality, erotic love, (euphemistic) the sexual act, chiefly in fare l’amore.[5][13][1]
  4. In animals, the mating instinct and the season of it: andare in amore “to come into heat”.[5][15][14]
  5. (Christianity) God's love for his creatures; love of God and of one's neighbour; also God himself.[5][14]
  6. (mythology, usually capitalized) The god of love, Cupid; also a cupid in painting or sculpture.[5][1]
  7. The person one loves; also a term of endearment: amore mio.[5][15][16]
  8. A delightful person or thing: un amore di gattino.[5][15]
  9. (in the plural) Love affairs.[15]
  10. A strong attachment to or liking for something: l’amore per il mare; also the wish to have something, as money or power.[15][14]

Word family

  • amoroso
  • amorevole
  • amorevolezza
  • amoreggiare
  • amorino
  • amoretto
  • amorazzo
  • innamorare
  • innamorato
  • innamoramento
  • disamore

Usage notes

Set phrases include amor proprio “self-respect”, per amore o per forza “willingly or not”, d'amore e d'accordo “in perfect harmony” and per amor di Dio “for God's sake”.[14][16][17] In several of these phrases the word is cut to amor.[14][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 31
  8. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 844
  9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 174
  10. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 1, 423
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  15. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  16. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli