Etymologically
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bello

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Pronunciation

Forms

bello (feminine bella, masculine plural belli, feminine plural belle; superlative bellissimo)[1] Before a noun it changes like the article: bel and plural bei before most consonants, bello and plural begli before a vowel, s followed by a consonant, z, gn, ps and x, and bell’ before a vowel in the singular.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bellus (“pretty, charming”), a diminutive of bonus (“good”).[4][5][6][1] DELI and the LEI describe it as a word of familiar and affectionate speech, at first used by women and children, which spread until it displaced the classical pulcher (“beautiful”) and fōrmōsus (“shapely”).[4][7] In Petronius' account of Trimalchio's dinner a single superlative of the classical adjective stands against six of the shapely-word and nine of the new one.[7] Sabatini–Coletti add that the decline of the homophone bellum (“war”), replaced by a Germanic word, helped the change.[8]

The new adjective prevailed in Gaul and Italy: French beau, Occitan bel, Catalan bell and Dalmatian byal, while its rival survived in Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese and old northern Italian.[7][5][9][10] Spanish bello and Portuguese belo were borrowed from Italian or Occitan.[5][10]

The Latin adjective goes back to Latin *duenelos, an old diminutive of ⟨duenos⟩, the old form of “good”.[1][6][11] DELI notes that its link with bene (“well”) was never forgotten and shows in several Romance uses.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Raimbaut de Vaqueiras' Contrasto (about 1190), in Genoese, and Nocentini also dates the word to 1190.[12][5] DELI and GRADIT start from Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Creatures (about 1224), which says of the sun “ello è bello e radiante cun grande splendore” (he is beautiful and radiant with great splendour).[4][6][13]

Semantic evolution

From the start the adjective covered pleasing sounds, smells and tastes, well-made things and well-made speech, and inner as well as outer beauty.[12] The sense “dear, good” lived on in Old Milanese and still exists in Sicilian and Abruzzese, and the sense “quite, completely” underlies bell’e fatto “already done”.[9][10] The noun bellezza is in Giacomo da Lentini before 1250, while beltà was taken from Old Occitan beltat and belongs to the poetic vocabulary of the earliest literature.[4][5]

Several phrases follow French models: belle lettere “literature” (Tasso, before 1595) reflects belles lettres, and belle arti reflects beaux arts, although arti belle was formed independently by Vasari.[4] Bello spirito “witty person”, already used by Galileo (1632), took on a frivolous and ironic tone in the 17th and 18th centuries under the influence of bel esprit.[4]

Plant names include belladonna (1549, Mattioli), traditionally explained as the herb women once used as a cosmetic.[4] The cheese name Belpaese comes from the title of Antonio Stoppani's book of 1875 on the natural beauties of Italy, which Dante had called “il bel paese là dove 'l sì suona”.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1190 – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras uses bello in his Contrasto.[12]
  • c. 1224 – Francis of Assisi calls the sun bello in the Canticle of the Creatures.[4]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses bellezza.[4]
  • Before 1300 – Bella “beautiful woman” is used by Rustico di Filippo.[4]
  • 1549 – Belladonna is recorded in Mattioli's Dioscorides.[4]
  • Before 1595 – Torquato Tasso uses belle lettere.[4]
  • 1667 – Lorenzo Magalotti uses bello spirito.[4]
  • 1875 – Antonio Stoppani publishes Il Bel Paese.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. beautiful, handsome, pleasing to look at or hear; meeting aesthetic or artistic standards: un bel giardino.[6][14][8]
  2. Pleasant, enjoyable, successful: una bella serata.[6][8]
  3. Of the weather, fine, fair: Domani farà bello.[8][3][1]
  4. Morally good, noble; kind, courteous: Non è bello ridere di lui.[6][8]
  5. Good, favourable, advantageous; also ironic, meaning the opposite.[6][15]
  6. Considerable in amount or intensity: una bella fetta di torta.[8][1]
  7. As an intensifier, before another adjective or a participle: bell’e pronto, quite ready.[8][10][1]

Noun

  1. il bello, beauty, especially as a concept of aesthetics; also the best or most interesting part of something.[3][13][1]
  2. (informal) A handsome man, bello mio as an affectionate or ironic form of address.[3][1]

Word family

  • bella
  • bellezza
  • bellamente
  • bellino
  • belloccio
  • abbellire
  • imbellire
  • bellimbusto
  • bellumore
  • belluria
  • belvedere
  • belladonna

Usage notes

A separate obsolete learned word bello “war”, from Latin bellum, was used in the 14th and 15th centuries.[9][16] The proverb non è bello ciò che è bello, ma è bello ciò che piace says that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.[14][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 5, 939
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 480
  10. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 59
  12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  13. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2
  14. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET