fioccoso

Forms

fioccoso (feminine fioccosa, masculine plural fioccosi, feminine plural fioccose)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin floccōsus (“flocky, woolly”), from floccus (“tuft of wool”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The GDLI derives it instead from fiocco.^[7] Tommaseo–Bellini also starts from the Italian noun, and points to the Latin adjective in Apuleius.^[8] The same Latin word gave Romanian flocos, while French uses floconneux.^[9]

The Latin noun has no clear etymology: de Vaan finds a link with Old High German blaha (“coarse linen cloth”) too imprecise.^[10] Wiktionary also mentions a borrowing from Proto-Germanic *flukkô (“down, flake”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the word before 1665, GRADIT and Devoto–Oli before 1787.^[5][2][3] The earliest example in the GDLI and Tommaseo–Bellini is Lippi's old man whose hair is fioccoso e lungo, white and fluffy.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The GDLI gives the sense “having many tufts” and, by likeness, “breaking up into flakes”, of mist and clouds: D'Annunzio's sun appariva e spariva tra i nuvoli fioccosi e pigri (“appeared and disappeared among the flaky, lazy clouds”).^[7][6] Montale and Alvaro used it too, and in literary use it describes a beard or hair that is white, soft and full.^[7] Tommaseo–Bellini marked the word obsolete.^[8] It has lived on in botany, for organs covered with tufts of hairs, and in chemistry, for a precipitate that separates in flakes.^[2][5][11]

Timeline

• Before 1665 – First record, according to Zingarelli.^[5]
• Before 1787 – First record, according to GRADIT and Devoto–Oli.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary, rare) flaky, tufted: full of flakes or tufts, shaped like a flake, or soft as one: un cielo di nuvole fioccose.^[2][5][6][1]
2. (botany) Of an organ: covered with hairs gathered in small tufts.^[2][3][4]
3. (chemistry) Of a precipitate: flocculent, separating in flakes.^[5][11][6]

Related words

• fiocco
• fioccare
• Latin floccus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli