fosco

Forms

fosco (feminine fosca, masculine plural foschi, feminine plural fosche)^[1] Old Italian also had fusco and fuscu.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fuscus (“dark, dusky”), with the accusative fuscum.^[4][5][6][1] The Latin word continues in most Romance languages, but not in Romanian or French: Dalmatian fosk (“black”), Sardinian fusku, Romansh fuosk, Occitan fosc, Catalan fosc, Spanish hosco and Portuguese fosco.^[7][8][5] In the conservative Alpine dialects and in Dalmatian it has come to mean “black”.^[8]

Latin fuscus goes back to Proto-Italic *fusko- and Proto-Indo-European *dʰus-ko- (“dark-coloured”).^[9][1] It matches exactly the Old English ancestor of the English word dusk.^[5][10][1] The suffix ⟨*-ko-⟩ also formed Latin adjectives for bodily features such as cascus and mancus, and de Vaan reports the view that the word first described a person's dark colouring.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is an anonymous poem from the Marche of the mid-13th century; its first sense is “dark, brownish or blackish and dull, without light”.^[2] DELI dates the sense “dark-coloured” to Dante, before 1321.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Dante writes Non frondi verdi, ma di color fosco (“not green leaves, but of a dark colour”), and speaks of the aura fosca, the murky air.^[11][12] The figurative senses followed early: in Old Italian the word could mean morally clouded or stained, and as a noun “darkness”.^[2] Petrarch, before 1374, used it for “sad”: I dì miei fur sì chiari, or son sì foschi (“my days were so bright, now they are so dark”).^[4][11]

Later uses include dark weather, a grim look, and an uncertain or threatening future, and the phrase a fosche tinte “in dark colours”, for a gloomy description.^[6][3][12] The noun foschia “haze”, a nautical word at first, is recorded from 1883.^[4][13]

Timeline

• Mid-13th century – An anonymous poem from the Marche has the first record.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses fosco for “dark-coloured”.^[4]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch uses it for “sad”.^[4]
• 1883 – Foschia “haze” is recorded in a nautical dictionary.^[4][13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. dark, tending to black or deep grey: nuvole fosche all'orizzonte.^[6][14][3]
2. Dark, gloomy: una notte fosca.^[6][14]
3. Of the sky or weather, overcast, hazy, murky.^[6][14][1]
4. (figurative) Of a look or face, grim, threatening.^[6][14][15]
5. (figurative) Ominous, uncertain: un futuro fosco.^[6][14]
6. (figurative) Sad, dark: pensieri foschi.^[6][14][3]

Word family

• foschia
• foscamente
• infoscare
• foschezza

Related words

• offuscare
• Latin fuscus
• English dusk

Usage notes

Dipingere or rappresentare a fosche tinte means to describe something in a gloomy, negative light.^[3][16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1696
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 189
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 459
14. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli