goloso

Forms

goloso (feminine golosa, masculine plural golosi, feminine plural golose, superlative golosissimo)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian guloso, gholoso and golozo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin gulōsus (“fond of choice food”), from gula (“throat”) in its sense of greed and gluttony, with the suffix -ōsus.^[4][5][6][1] DEI calls the word learned instead.^[7] The same adjective is Dalmatian golaus, Engadine gulus, Old French gouleus, Old Occitan golos, Catalan golos and Spanish goloso.^[8]

De Vaan finds no sure etymology for the Latin noun: the traditional root does not fit its sounds, and the word may be onomatopoeic.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Pisan translation of Albertano da Brescia's treatises (1287–1288), in the sense of given to the sin of gluttony, greedy for food.^[2] DELI dates the figurative “avid” to Iacopone (before 1306) and “appetizing” to about 1300.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the adjective was a word of moral teaching: it described the sin of gluttony, animals greedy for food, and as a noun the glutton.^[2] It also meant greedy for riches, eager for something to happen, and inclined to satisfy one's appetites.^[2] Boccaccio's Filocolo has an army goloso dell'innocente sangue, “greedy for innocent blood”, and Dante's Convivio speaks of eyes gulosi, eager to see.^[10][3]

The noun golosi names the gluttons of Dante's Inferno.^[11][12] Today the adjective also describes food that tempts the appetite and, figuratively, news that arouses keen interest.^[11][13]

Timeline

• 1287–1288 – The Pisan translation of Albertano uses goloso.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Golositade appears in Bono Giamboni.^[4]
• c. 1300 – The sense “appetizing” is recorded in the Laude of Urbino.^[4]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone uses it for “avid”.^[4]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it for “gluttonous” and as a noun.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Fond of food in general or of a particular food, greedy; given to gluttony: Mia sorella è golosa di cioccolato.^[11][12][14]
2. (figurative) Eager, avid: Il pubblico è goloso di retroscena..^[11][13][14]
3. Of food, appetizing, tempting.^[11][12][13]
4. (figurative) Arousing keen interest: uno scoop goloso.^[11][12][13]
5. Showing desire or lust: occhi golosi.^[11][12]

Noun

1. A glutton, someone fond of good food.^[11][13][1]

Word family

• golosità
• ingolosire
• golosamente
• golosone

Related words

• gola
• ghiotto
• Latin gula

Usage notes

Treccani gives the ⟨s⟩ as voiceless /s/, Sabatini–Coletti and Wiktionary as voiced /z/, and Zingarelli allows both.^{[15][14][1][13]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1841
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana