ceraso

Forms

ceraso m (plural cerasi)^[1] In the dialects of central and southern Italy the word has many local shapes, among them Neapolitan ceraso at Naples and cerasu in Calabria.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cerasus (“cherry tree”), the Latin name of the tree, which is from Ancient Greek κερασός (kerasós).^[3][4][5][1] The dictionaries differ on the exact Latin starting point.^[6][7][8][9] GRADIT and Treccani give Late Latin cerasium, which Treccani ties to Greek κεράσιον (kerásion), and Zingarelli gives the adjective ceraseus (“of the cherry tree”).^[6][7][8] The TLIO instead derives the Italian word from cerasa, the regional name of the fruit.^[9]

The LEI explains the Romance names of the cherry from two neuter forms of Latin: cerasium, recorded in Pliny, and ceresium, recorded in Anthimus in the early 6th century.^[2] The first, which became a feminine name of the fruit, is typical of central and southern Italy, Corsica and Sardinia and of Romanian, while the second lies behind French cerise, Spanish cereza, Portuguese cereja and the northern Italian forms.^[2] The Latin name of the tree itself survives in Old French cesse, a wild cherry.^[10][11]

Latin cerasus was taken from Greek, where κερασός (kerasós) meant the bird cherry; the Greek word may be of Anatolian origin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Latin–Italian glossary from Gubbio of the second half of the 14th century, which explains Latin cerasus as lu ceraso, the cherry tree.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed regional: it is the usual name of the cherry tree in central and southern Italy, where standard Italian has ciliegio.^[12][7][8] Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, who died in 1646, names it among the trees he planted in November (sermento, / ceraso, o pero, o mel cotogno, o pesco), and Pasolini uses it of the cherry trees in the vegetable plots of the Roman outskirts.^[13] Tommaseo doubted that the name of the tree was still alive in Tuscan usage.^[14]

In many dialects of Lazio, Umbria, the Abruzzi, Campania and Calabria the same form names the fruit, the cherry, as well as the tree.^[2]

As an adjective the word means cherry-red.^[6][8][5] This is a learned use, with the stress on the first syllable, cèraso, and Tommaseo already recorded color ceraso as current.^[13][14][7] The learned form is also part of lauro ceraso, the cherry laurel, recorded before 1597.^[8][10]

Timeline

• Second half of the 14th century – A Gubbio glossary records lu ceraso “the cherry tree”.^[9]
• Before 1597 – The learned cèraso appears in lauro ceraso, the cherry laurel.^[8]
• Before 1646 – Buonarroti the Younger names the ceraso among the fruit trees he planted.^[6][13]
• 1861 – Tommaseo records color ceraso, cherry red, as current.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, central and southern Italy) The cherry tree, ciliegio: Dietro la casa c’era un vecchio ceraso carico di frutti.^{[6][3][4][7][1]}

Adjective

1. (literary) Of the colour of a ripe cherry, cherry-red.^{[6][8][5][13]}

Word family

• ceraseto

Related words

• cerasa
• ciliegio
• ciliegia
• lauroceraso
• Latin cerasus
• French cerise

Usage notes

In the sense of the colour the word is stressed cèraso, against ceràso for the tree.^[7][14] Lauro ceraso (also written lauroceraso) is the cherry laurel, Prunus laurocerasus.^[8][6][10]

A Sicilian céraso of the 14th century, recorded only in a medical text, is a different word meaning white lead (cerussa), which Alessio derived from a Byzantine Greek form.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 1004
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
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 d e f Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 861
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 985
14. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET