caro

Forms

caro (feminine cara, masculine plural cari, feminine plural care, superlative carissimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cārus (“dear, beloved; precious; costly”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin adjective already had both its senses, and Plautus played on the double meaning.^[5] The word continues in all the Romance languages except Romanian: Dalmatian kuor, Friulian kar, French cher, Occitan car, Catalan car, Spanish caro, Portuguese caro and Sardinian caru.^[6][3][7]

Latin cārus goes back to Proto-Italic *kāro- and Proto-Indo-European *kéh₂ros (“desired, desirable”), an adjective of the root Proto-Indo-European *keh₂- (“to desire, wish”).^[8][1] The same formation is Latvian kārs (“lustful”) and Gothic 𐌷𐍉𐍂𐍃 (hōrs, “adulterer”), and Celtic has Old Irish carae (“friend”);^[8][3][9] Nocentini notes that the sense of excess in Latvian turns into transgression in Gothic and in Old High German huora (“prostitute”).^[8][3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur of the late 12th century.^[10] DELI dates the sense “precious, valued” to Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, “dear, beloved” to Brunetto Latini, before 1294, and “costly” to the 13th–14th century;^[2][4] GRADIT dates the word to 1253.^[2][4] In Dante, Brunetto is remembered for “la cara e buona imagine paterna” (the dear and kind fatherly image).^[11]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the adjective for “rare”, “hard, difficult”, “scarce, meagre” and “stingy”, and for a refined poetic style.^[10] As a noun caro meant a dearth and the high prices it caused, in Brunetto Latini's Tesoretto (before 1274) and Bono Giamboni.^[10][9] Bernardo Davanzati's Tacitus has “Lamentandosi la plebe del troppo caro” (as the common people complained of the high prices), before 1600.^[2][12]

The noun returned in the 20th century in compounds for rising prices: caroviveri (1916) and carovita (before 1941), and then jokingly in many more, which Migliorini listed in 1963.^[2] The Tuscan derivative carezze “caresses” (about 1300) and the verb carezzare passed into French as caresse (1534) and caresser.^[6]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use caro.^[10]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses it for “precious, valued”.^[2]
• Before 1274 – Brunetto Latini's Tesoretto uses caro as a noun.^[10]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for “dear, beloved”.^[2]
• About 1300 – Tuscan carezze “caresses” is recorded.^[6]
• 1534 – French caresse is borrowed from Italian.^[6]
• Before 1600 – Bernardo Davanzati uses caro for a rise in prices.^[2]
• 1916 – Caroviveri appears in the Nuova Antologia.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. dear, beloved; of things, to which one is attached: Quella foto è un ricordo molto caro.^[4][5][13]
2. As an affectionate form of address and in letters (Cara Laura, cari saluti); ironically or impatiently, caro mio.^[4][5][13]
3. Kind, sweet, likeable: Sei stata davvero cara a passare.^[4][5][14]
4. Precious, important to someone: La libertà è cara a tutti.^[4][13][15]
5. expensive, costly; of a shop or professional, charging high prices: In centro i ristoranti sono più cari.^[4][13][14]

Adverb

1. At a high price, with costare, pagare, vendere; figuratively in pagarla cara, to pay dearly for something.^[4][15][14]

Noun

1. A dear one, a darling, i miei cari, one's family.^[13][14][1]
2. A rise in the price of necessities, especially as the first part of compounds: carovita, caro-affitti.^[13][16][2]

Word family

• carezza
• carezzare
• accarezzare
• carino
• caramente
• carissimo
• rincarare
• rincaro
• carovita
• caroviveri

Related words

• carità
• Latin cārus
• French cher

Usage notes

Two minor homographs come from Greek: caro the caraway plant (genus Carum), recorded in 1563, from scientific Latin, from Greek káron, and the obsolete medical caro “deep, morbid sleep”, from Greek káros.^[4][11][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 12, 836
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 775
10. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ 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, 788
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli