amoroso

Forms

amoroso (feminine amorosa, masculine plural amorosi, feminine plural amorose)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian amorozo, Old Italian amoros in the north, and Sicilian amoruso and amurusu.^[2][3] The shortened moroso is the usual northern word for a boyfriend.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *amōrōsus, an adjective formed in spoken usage on Latin amor (“love”) with the suffix -ōsus.^[4][1][3] The LEI notes that the word is not found in classical Latin but was probably formed in Vulgar Latin.^[3] The Medieval Latin form amorosus is recorded only from 1227 and was itself taken from the Romance forms.^[3][1] DELI, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli treat it simply as a derivative of amore with -oso, which is how the word is analysed today.^[6][7][8][1]

The word lives on in every Romance language except Romanian: Old French amoreus (about 1180), modern French amoureux, Catalan amorós and Spanish amoroso from the 13th century, and Portuguese amoroso.^[3] The noun “lover” has kept the short form without the initial vowel in Dalmatian moráus, Friulian morôs and Romansh marus, as in the northern Italian moroso.^[3][4] Latin amor is formed on amō (“to love”) with the suffix -or.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Ritmo cassinese, from the beginning of the 13th century.^[2] DELI dates the noun “lover” to Giacomo da Lentini, who died before 1250, and the adjective “of love” to Guido delle Colonne, before 1290.^[6] Giacomo's canzonetta calls his lady fiore d'ogni amorosa, “flower of every beloved”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective meant “full of love” or “moved by love”, and “concerning love”.^[2] Bere amoroso or beveraggio amoroso was a love potion, and food could be called amoroso when it was rich in flavour.^[2] From the 13th century it also meant “lovable, charming”, a sense now literary: Dante writes of Donne e donzelle amorose and Boccaccio's narrators address their amorose compagne.^[3][7][11] Dante's Convivio defines philosophy as uno amoroso uso di sapienza, “a loving use of wisdom”.^[10]

As a noun the word meant a lover or sweetheart from the start;^[12][5][10] Tommaseo already found it alive only in the familiar speech of some dialects, and today the clipped moroso, morosa is the colloquial form.^[12][5][10] In the theatre amoroso was the role of the young lover, inherited from classical comedy by the commedia dell'arte and Goldoni, with a primo and a prima amorosa in every company.^[11][12]

In music amoroso marks a passage to be played tenderly; in this sense it passed into German in 1732, into French in 1768 and into English in 1770.^[13] English had borrowed the noun “lover” as early as 1616.^[13] Since about 1870 it has also used Amoroso as the name of a kind of sherry.^[13]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – The Ritmo cassinese has the first record.^[2]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses the noun for a beloved woman.^[6][10]
• Before 1290 – Guido delle Colonne uses the adjective “of love”.^[6]
• 1616 – English borrows amoroso “lover”.^[13]
• 1732 – German has amoroso as a musical direction.^[13]
• 1771 – The musical sense is recorded in Italian.^[13]
• 1833 – The theatrical role of the young lover is recorded.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. loving, affectionate: feeling love for someone and showing it: un nonno amoroso con i nipoti.^[14][7][8]
2. Inspired by love or showing it; also caring, attentive: uno sguardo amoroso, cure amorose.^[7][8][15]
3. Of or about love, romantic: una vicenda amorosa, lettere amorose.^[7][14][16]
4. That arouses love: filtro amoroso (a love potion).^[7][8][5]
5. (literary) lovable, pleasant, charming.^[7][16][15]
6. (obsolete) In love.^[14][16]
7. (music) A direction that a passage is to be played tenderly and expressively: andante amoroso.^[7][8][14]

Noun

1. (colloquial, uncommon) A sweetheart, boyfriend or lover; feminine amorosa.^[8][14][5]
2. (theatre) The role of the young lover, or the actor who played it.^[7][8][5]

Word family

• amorosamente
• amorosità
• amorosetto
• amorosino

Related words

• amore
• moroso
• amorevole
• Latin amor

Usage notes

In everyday speech the noun is more often the shortened moroso, morosa.^[5][14] Amoroso is also an Italian surname, from the nickname.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 903
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f g Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli