formoso

Forms

formoso (feminine formosa, masculine plural formosi, feminine plural formose)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian formosa, Old Italian formosi and the superlative Old Italian formosissima.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin formōsus (“beautiful, well-formed”), which the GDLI calls a learned word.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin adjective is formed from forma (“shape; beauty”) with -ōsus (“full of”).^[1][7][8] Isidore already explained the adjective as named from the noun.^[3]

In several Romance areas the Latin word took the place of Latin pulcher (“beautiful”) and lived on as a popular word: Romanian frumos, Old Occitan formos, Spanish hermoso and Portuguese formoso.^{[9][10][11][1]} The DEI also finds it in the old dialects of northern Italy, such as old Venetian formoso of the 13th century, and points to the Calabrian place name ⟨Acquaformosa⟩ and a 10th-century Medieval Latin formosus in the Salerno chronicle as signs that it lived on in the South too.^[11][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Laude cortonesi, Tuscan religious songs of the second half of the 13th century, with the sense “having beautiful, well-proportioned forms”, also figuratively.^[2][4] DELI dates its sense “beautiful” before 1306, in Iacopone da Todi.^[12][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word meant “beautiful, shapely” and was used of men as well as women: Dante writes of food that makes men formosi e membruti (“shapely and well-limbed”).^[2][3][13] In 1861 the Tommaseo held that it was not in use even in the written language, but might serve the language of art and science for a beauty of form, well proportioned rather than merely pleasing.^[14]

The modern sense, “full-figured”, is a reinterpretation through forma, in the plural sense of a body's curves.^[11] In 1908 Panzini noted that the word meant not only well formed but, said especially of a woman, implied ample flesh and a striking figure.^[12] Today it is said above all of a woman's body; the older sense of a majestic beauty is literary.^[5][13][15]

Timeline

• 1250–1300 – The Laude cortonesi use formoso.^[2][4]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses it for “beautiful”.^[12][3]
• 14th century – Dante uses formosi of men in the Convivio.^[3][13]
• 1861 – The Tommaseo describes the word as out of use.^[14]
• 1908 – Panzini records the sense of a woman with full, ample forms.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having full, well-rounded shapes, shapely, curvaceous, especially of a woman's body: una cantante formosa.^{[5][8][15][6]}
2. (literary) Of a stately, harmonious beauty.^[13][16]

Word family

• formosità
• formosetto

Related words

• forma
• Latin formosus
• Spanish hermoso

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
11. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1691
12. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli