dolore

Forms

dolore m (plural dolori)^[1] Old Italian also used the word as a feminine, and had a plural Old Italian dolora.^[2][3][4] Old forms include Old Italian dolor, Old Italian dolure and southern Old Italian duluri.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dolor (“pain, grief”) (accusative “dolōrem”), from doleō (“to hurt, feel pain”) and the suffix -or.^[5][6][1][7] DELI classes it as a learned word, while Nocentini and DEI treat it as continued throughout Romance.^[8][5][9]

The same word is French douleur, Occitan dolor, Catalan dolor, Spanish dolor, Portuguese dor and Sardinian dolore, and Old Romanian had duroare.^[5][10] It was borrowed as Welsh dolur.^[10][9] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance masculine noun, but most of the Romance outcomes, such as French “douleur”, point to a feminine.^[11]

The Latin verb comes from Proto-Italic *doleō (“to hurt”), probably from Proto-Indo-European *delh₁- (“to cut”), so that the first sense would have been “to divide, cut to pieces”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Libro of Uguccione da Lodi, a Cremonese poem of the early 13th century.^[2] DELI dates the sense “unhappiness, grief” to Guittone d'Arezzo (before 1294) and the sense “bodily pain” to Iacopone da Todi (before 1306); GRADIT and Nocentini date the word to about 1274.^[8][6][5]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word covered both bodily pain and grief, and also the person or thing that causes it.^[2][8] In Old Italian it was also the public mourning for a death.^[2] Francesca's words in Dante's Inferno, “Nessun maggior dolore / che ricordarsi del tempo felice / ne la miseria” (there is no greater sorrow than to remember happy times in misery), are among the best-known lines in Italian.^[3] Leopardi wrote that all is mystery “fuor che il nostro dolor” (except our pain).^[12]

In the dialects the word has declined, and male has replaced it for physical pain.^[9] In Catholic usage the atto di dolore is the prayer of contrition, and the sette dolori are the seven sorrows of the Virgin.^[13][3] The phrase dolore mondiale translates German Weltschmerz.^[9] Colloquially son dolori! warns that trouble is coming.^[6][3]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses dolore.^[2]
• Before 1266 – Folco di Calabria uses doloroso “full of grief”.^[8]
• c. 1274 – GRADIT's date of first record.^[6]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it for grief.^[8]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses it for bodily pain.^[8]
• 1671 – Francesco Redi uses dolorifico.^[8]
• 1918 – Dolorante is recorded.^[8]
• 1965 – Indolore “painless” is recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. pain, ache, a feeling of physical suffering: Ho un dolore alla schiena da due giorni.^{[6][14][12][1]}
2. (plural, colloquial) Aches and pains of old age or rheumatism; labour pains: Le sono cominciati i dolori.^[6][14]
3. (medicine) The sensation that warns of harm to the body: terapia del dolore.^[6][13]
4. grief, sorrow, deep unhappiness: Non si è mai ripreso dal dolore per la morte del figlio.^{[6][12][13][1]}
5. A person or thing that causes grief: Quel ragazzo è il dolore della famiglia.^[6][12][3]
6. (religion) Contrition, sorrow for one's sins: atto di dolore.^[6][12][13]
7. (colloquial, plural) Trouble: Se lo scopre tuo padre, sono dolori!^[6][3][15]

Word family

• addolorare
• dolorare
• dolorante
• dolorifico
• doloroso
• dolorosità
• indolore
• antidolore

Related words

• dolere
• duolo
• Latin dolor
• French douleur

Usage notes

Letto di dolore is the bed of a long, serious illness.^[3][13] The literary duolo has the same sense, but comes from a different Latin noun.^[12][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
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 h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1376
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
12. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
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. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti