curioso

Forms

curioso (feminine curiosa, masculine plural curiosi, feminine plural curiose)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin cūriōsus (“careful; inquisitive”), from cūra (“care, concern”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin adjective first meant “one who takes care of something”, and, from there “eager to know”; the sense “strange” is documented in Latin from the 9th century and lives on in southern dialects.^[2][5] The same borrowing is French curieux and Spanish curioso.^[3][5]

The Oxford Latin Dictionary analyses the Latin word as cūra with the suffix -ōsus, while Wiktionary takes it as a back-formation from incūriōsus (“careless”), and Devoto from an intermediate ⟨*curius⟩.^[6][1][7] De Vaan traces cūra to Proto-Italic ⟨*kwois-ā-⟩ “care, watch” and the Proto-Indo-European root *kʷeys- (“to heed”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Sienese translation of Giles of Rome, of 1288, and Bono Giamboni uses the word before 1292; in these early texts curioso means “careful, attentive”.^[9][2] The sense “eager to know” is in Petrarch, before 1374.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the adjective for something done with care, for a person refined in dress and food, for one greedy for something, and for one full of worries, as well as for one eager to see and learn.^[9] The desire to know easily turned into prying: a life of Saint Anthony calls a man vano uomo, e curiosissimo delle mondane novitadi “a vain man, and most curious about worldly news”.^[11]

The sense “odd, unusual, arousing curiosity” is recorded about 1535, in Annibal Caro.^[2] The noun curiosità goes back to Bono Giamboni before 1292, and took the sense “rare object” in Galileo; the verb curiosare, to poke about, appears in Ippolito Nievo before 1861.^[2] English borrowed the noun curioso in 1658–1672 for a person curious about science and art, and later a connoisseur.^[10]

Timeline

• 1288 – The Sienese translation of Giles of Rome uses curioso.^[9]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for “careful” and has curiosità.^[2]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch uses curioso for “eager to know”.^[2]
• About 1535 – Annibal Caro uses it for “strange”.^[2]
• Before 1642 – Galileo uses curiosità for a rare object.^[2]
• 1658–1672 – English borrows curioso.^[10]
• Before 1861 – Ippolito Nievo has the verb curiosare.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. curious, eager to know and learn: Era un ragazzo curioso di ogni cosa.^{[4][12][13][1]}
2. nosy, inquisitive about other people's affairs: Non essere così curioso!^[4][13][14]
3. Odd, strange, unusual; also as an exclamation: È curioso che nessuno l'abbia notato.^{[4][12][13][14]}
4. Interesting, witty: una storia curiosa.^[4]
5. (literary) Careful, diligent.^[4][12][14]

Noun

1. An onlooker, a busybody: Davanti al negozio si era radunato un gruppo di curiosi.^{[4][12][14][1]}
2. il curioso: the odd thing: Il curioso è che lei non se ne sia accorta.^[4][12][13]

Word family

• curiosità
• curiosare
• curiosaggine
• curiosamente
• curiosone
• incuriosire

Related words

• cura
• Latin cūriōsus
• French curieux

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1195
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ 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 Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli