Etymologically
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duro

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Pronunciation

Forms

duro (feminine dura, masculine plural duri, feminine plural dure, superlative durissimo)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dūrus (“hard, solid; harsh”).[2][3][4] The word is pan-Romance, found also in Dalmatian and Sardinian but not in Romanian: French dur, Occitan dur, Catalan dur, Spanish duro, Portuguese duro, Dalmatian doir and Sardinian duru.[3][5][6] Welsh dur (“steel”) comes from it too.[5]

DELI calls the origin of the Latin word uncertain.[2] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *dūros, Proto-Indo-European *duh₂-ró-s (“far, long”), the source of Sanskrit दूर (dūrá, “far, distant”) and Ancient Greek δηρός (dērós, “long”); on this view the sense went from “long-lasting” to “hard”, with dūrō (“to harden; to last”) as the link.[7][1] The OLD and Devoto start instead from ⟨*drū-ros⟩, which they connect with words for “firm, strong” such as Lithuanian drūtas and Old English trum and, in DEI's view, with the name of the oak, Ancient Greek δρῦς (drûs).[8][9][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the last quarter of the 12th century.[10] The first sense DELI dates is figurative, “stubborn”, in Cielo d'Alcamo before 1250; the physical sense “hard to scratch” is in Bono Giamboni before 1292.[2] GRADIT's earliest date, before 1250, is for the sense “harsh-tasting” of wine.[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for people as well as things: “cruel, pitiless” before 1290 (Guido delle Colonne), “hard to bear, wearisome” before 1348, “strong, sturdy” before 1400 and “slow-witted” before 1410.[2] Dante has “il senso lor m'è duro” (their meaning is hard for me), and Petrarch uses it for grief.[11][12] As a noun, il duro meant “the difficulty” (before 1742) and, from the 1950s “a tough guy”, an actor who plays such parts or a political hard-liner.[2] In music duro meant “major” in the 15th century, and the term was calqued in French and English.[13]

Many fixed phrases are figurative: duro d'orecchi “hard of hearing”, osso duro “a tough nut”, testa dura “a stubborn person”, a muso duro “bluntly”.[14][15] In science and technology the adjective names acqua dura “hard water”, grano duro “durum wheat” and droga dura “hard drug”.[4][15]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – The Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur use the word.[10]
  • Before 1250 – Cielo d'Alcamo uses it for “stubborn”.[2]
  • Before 1290 – Guido delle Colonne uses it for “cruel”.[2]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for “hard to scratch”.[2]
  • 1420–1447 – duro “major” in music.[13]
  • Before 1742 – The noun il duro “the difficulty”.[2]
  • 1957–1958 – Guido Piovene uses duro for “a tough guy”.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. hard, resisting pressure, cutting or scratching: Il marmo è più duro del legno.[4][16][11]
  2. not soft, firm, (of bread) stale, (of meat) tough, (of a key, lever) stiff: un letto troppo duro.[4][16][14]
  3. (figurative) hard to bear, harsh: un clima duro, giorni duri.[4][14][15]
  4. difficult, demanding: un esame duro, un allenamento duro.[4][11]
  5. (figurative) strict, stern, unfeeling: Sei troppo duro con lui.[11][14][15]
  6. slow to understand: duro di comprendonio.[11][14]
  7. (vulgar) of the penis, erect.[4][1]

Noun

  1. a tough person; a hard-liner: fare il duro.[2][11]

Adverb

  1. hard, with effort: lavorare duro.[16][17]

Word family

  • durezza
  • duramente
  • indurire
  • indurimento
  • durone
  • durometro
  • durame

Usage notes

A minor homograph, duro (from 1869), is the Spanish silver coin first struck in the 16th century, later the five-peseta piece; it is Spanish duro, short for peso duro.[4][16][6][18]

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 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 i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1404
  7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  11. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  12. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 396
  13. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  15. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  16. ^ 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
  17. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  18. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4, 1040