forese

Forms

forese m or f by sense (plural foresi)^[1] Old Italian forms include forisi, forisci and furisi.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin forensis (“from outside”).^[3][4][1] In classical Latin forensis meant “of the forum, of the public square”, from forum, and the sense “one who lives outside the city” is already found in Livy and Cicero according to DEI.^[5][6][7] In Late Latin the word was felt as a derivative of forās (“outside”), and Apuleius uses it for “from outside”; this explains the meaning of the Italian word.^[5][8][6][1] GRADIT and the GDLI link it with foris (“outside”), and Nocentini with forēs (“doors”), the plural that gave fuori.^[9][10][11]

The Latin /n/ before /s/ was weakened and lost.^[4] The same word is Old Occitan fores (“foreigner”), and Körting gives Spanish forense “foreign”.^[5][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the word to 1266.^[8] The TLIO's first record is in Brunetto Latini's Tesoretto, before 1274, where it means “of the countryside, outside the city walls”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian forese was both an adjective, “rural, from outside the walls”, and a noun for a countryman or countrywoman.^[2][10] A second line of senses meant an outsider: a stranger, someone living in a land he was not born in, or someone outside the city's community.^[2] Cavalcanti, Sacchetti and the Florentine carnival songs use it for peasants and country girls.^[10][13]

The diminutive foresetta appears with Cavalcanti, before 1300, and its later form forosetta “country girl” with Alamanni in 1546;^[3][14] forosetta is the form that has stayed in literary and joking use.^[3][14] Manzoni used foresi for country girls in the 1827 edition of I promessi sposi and replaced it with contadine in 1840.^[6]

Today the word is archaic in the old sense; in southern Italy it names a farm labourer employed on small holdings.^[15][9][6]

Timeline

• 1266 – First date Zingarelli gives for forese.^[8]
• Before 1274 – Brunetto Latini uses forese in the Tesoretto.^[2]
• Before 1300 – Cavalcanti writes foresetta “country girl”.^[3]
• 1546 – Alamanni uses forosetta.^[3]
• 1840 – Manzoni replaces foresi with contadine in the revised I promessi sposi.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A peasant, a person who lives in the countryside outside a town.^[9][15][6]
2. (archaic) A stranger, an outsider.^[8][2][1]
3. (regional, southern Italy) A farm labourer working on small farms.^[9][15][6]

Adjective

1. (literary) Of the country, rural: la gente forese.^[8][16][1]

Word family

• forosetta
• foresetta
• foresello
• foresozzo

Related words

• forense
• foro
• fuori
• Latin forensis

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 Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1687
6. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 455
15. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli