fora

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin forās (“out of doors, outwards”), a variant of fuora and fuori.^[1][2][3][4] The same Latin adverb gave Catalan fora, Occitan fòra, Spanish fuera and Portuguese fora.^[1][5][6]

This adverb and forīs are the accusative and ablative plural of a noun *fora (“door”), a variant of forēs (“doors”), so that they first meant “at the door”.^[6][1] The noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰwer- (“door”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEI dates the old adverb fora, the same as fuora, to the 13th century.^[2] DELI's earliest Italian forms of the word are fuor (1219) and fore (before 1276, Guido Guinizelli).^[7]

Semantic evolution

Tommaseo marked fora as obsolete in the written language, but noted that it lived on in Tuscan and other dialects.^[8] Modern dictionaries call it a popular and regional variant of fuori, and Wiktionary labels it archaic, literary and Roman, now rare.^[4][3][1]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (archaic, literary, regional) Out, outside, outwards.^[3][4][1]

Preposition

1. (archaic, literary, regional) Outside (of).^[3][1]

Related words

• fuori
• fuora
• Latin forīs

Usage notes

A separate archaic and poetic fora means “would be” (sarebbe): it continues fuerat, the pluperfect of esse.^[9][4][2] Dante has in voi fora distrutto / libero arbitrio (“free will would be destroyed in you”).^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1684
3. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier