fumoso

Forms

fumoso (feminine fumosa, masculine plural fumosi, feminine plural fumose)^[1] Old Italian also had fummoso and fumuso.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin fūmōsus (“smoky”), formed from fūmus (“smoke”) with -ōsus.^[4][5][6][1] The GDLI calls it learned and compares French fumeux, from the 12th century.^[3] REW lists it beside Romanian fumos, Occitan fumos, Spanish humoso and Portuguese fumoso as outcomes of the Latin adjective.^[7] In Italian it also reads as fumo with -oso.^[1]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from Proto-Indo-European *dʰuh₂-mó- (“smoke”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis of the 13th century.^[2][4] DELI's first date is before 1333, in Simintendi, for something that makes smoke or is full of it.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word figuratively for what looks confused or dark, for a gas carrying particles, for water bubbling, and in medicine for food or drink that sends vapours from the stomach to the brain; in veterinary texts it meant rabid, and so raving or out of one's mind.^[2]

The sense “haughty, conceited” appears in Alberti in 1437–38, and “confused, obscure” in Carducci in 1858.^[9] Of wine, fumoso means strong and heady, recalling the Roman habit of ageing wine in a smoke room.^[10][11] Giordani called Foscolo's Sepolcri a fumoso carme, an obscure poem.^[11]

Timeline

• 13th century – The Neapolitan Regimen Sanitatis uses fumoso.^[2]
• Before 1333 – Simintendi uses it for “smoky”.^[9]
• 1437–1438 – Alberti uses it for “haughty”.^[9]
• 1858 – Carducci uses it for “confused, obscure”.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Giving off smoke or vapour: una torcia fumosa.^[5][10][11]
2. Full of smoke; blackened by smoke: un bar fumoso.^[5][10][1]
3. (literary) Of wine, strong and heady.^[5][10][12]
4. (figurative) Obscure, convoluted: un saggio fumoso.^[5][11][1]
5. (figurative) Vague, insubstantial: idee fumose.^[5][12]
6. (figurative) Haughty, conceited.^[5][11]

Word family

• fumosità
• fumosamente

Related words

• fumo
• Latin fumosus
• French fumeux

Usage notes

The ⟨s⟩ is pronounced either /z/ or /s/: /fuˈmo.zo/, /fuˈmo.so/.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 453
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse