calore

Forms

calore m (plural calori)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian calor, Old Italian calur, Old Italian caror and Old Italian chalore.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin calor (“warmth, heat”), a noun formed with the suffix -or from caleō (“to be warm”).^{[4][5][6][7][1]} The DÉRom reconstructs it as a Proto-Romance masculine noun meaning “heat, warmth”, from cognates in every branch except Vegliote, Friulian and Ladin.^[8] The same word is French chaleur, Occitan calor, Catalan calor, Spanish calor, Sardinian kalóre and Aromanian căloáre (“sultry heat”).^[5][9][10] Its near-synonym calura comes from a separate popular formation, Vulgar Latin *calūra, also made from the verb.^[4][5]

De Vaan derives the Latin verb from a stative verb Proto-Indo-European *ḱlh₁-éh₁- (“to be hot”), with cognates in Welsh clyd and Lithuanian šiltas (“warm”).^[11] Nocentini compares the same Lithuanian words and sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *kel-.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cremonese poems of Uguccione da Lodi, early in the 13th century, for the warmth given off by the sun or by fire.^[4][2][3] Elsewhere the word appears about 1250 in Giacomo da Lentini and through the second half of the 13th century in Tuscan, Bolognese and Milanese texts.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word already covered high temperature, the sun's power to warm, and hot weather; in Aristotelian physics heat was one of the four primary qualities of matter, beside cold, wet and dry.^[2] Medical texts spoke of the body's natural heat (calore naturale), of fever and inflammation, and of the warming power of food and wine.^[2] Dante writes Guarda il calor del sol che si fa vino (“See the heat of the sun that turns into wine”).^[12] The sense of sexual excitement is found early in the 14th century, and that of vitality before 1332.^[4] The LEI notes that the senses of heat, hot weather and sexual heat already existed in Latin;^[9] French has être en chaleur from 1561.^[9]

The scientific words of the family came from French: caloria (1865 in the modern sense, though a 14th-century caloria meant simply heat), calorico (1795), calorifero (1839) and calorimetro (1795) render calorie, calorique, calorifère and Lavoisier's calorimètre.^[4] Modern Italian uses calore in physics for the energy that passes from a hotter body to a colder one, and figuratively for enthusiasm and human warmth.^[6][13][14]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses calor in Cremona.^[4][2]
• About 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses the word.^[3]
• Early 14th century – The sense of sexual excitement appears in the Intelligenza.^[4]
• Before 1332 – Alberto della Piagentina uses it for vitality.^[4]
• 1795 – Calorico and calorimetro are recorded.^[4]
• 1839 – Calorifero names a central heating system.^[4]
• 1865 – Caloria is recorded as the unit of heat.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (physics) Heat: the energy that warms bodies and changes their state, passing from a body at a higher temperatura to one at a lower: la conduzione del calore.^[6][13][14]
2. The feeling of warmth that such energy produces: Sentivo sulle gambe il calore della stufa.^[6][15]
3. High temperature, hot weather; caldo, calura: Con questo calore nessuno riesce a dormire.^[6][16]
4. A sudden flush rising to the face.^[6]
5. (figurative) enthusiasm, fervour: Ha sostenuto la proposta con grande calore.^[6][16][14]
6. (figurative) Affection, cordiality, the warmth of a family or community: calore umano.^[6][14]
7. (zoology) Heat, oestrus, the period when female mammals will mate: andare in calore.^[6][14][16]
8. (colloquial) Inflammation or a rash on the skin or mucous membranes.^[6][14]

Word family

• caloroso
• calorosità
• accalorarsi
• incalorire
• caloria
• calorico
• calorifero
• calorifico
• calorimetro
• calorimetria

Related words

• caldo
• calere
• calura
• Latin calor
• French chaleur

Usage notes

Calore is the scientific term for the energy, while in everyday speech caldo is the usual word for the sensation and for hot weather.^[16] Calor bianco (white heat, about 2000 °C) is also used figuratively for the highest point of tension.^[16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c 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 Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 9, 1485–1504
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
9. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 9, 1485
10. ^ 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. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ 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
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. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli