infoscare

Forms

infoscare (first-person singular present infósco, first-person singular past historic infoscài, past participle infoscàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)^[1]

Etymology

Zingarelli and GDLI treat it as learned: it is borrowed from Latin īnfuscō (“to darken”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} OLD analyses the Latin verb as in- and fuscō (“to make dark”), from fuscus (“dark”).^[7][1] GDLI records the older form infuscare.^[3]

Treccani and Devoto's Avviamento treat it instead as formed in Italian: it is from Italian in- + fosco + -are.^[8][9] Wiktionary takes it as inherited from Latin.^[1] DEI compares Spanish enfoscar.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEI dates the verb to the 13th century, Zingarelli to 1481 and GRADIT to before 1498.^[10][2][4] Among GDLI's oldest quotations is Landino's translation of Pliny, with the form infuscare: a dove drinking con l’ombra del capo infusca l’acqua (“darkens the water with the shadow of its head”).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Later poets used it for darkening in many forms: G. Gozzi's L’aere opaco e bruno / le selve infosca (“The dim, dark air makes the woods gloomy”), and D'Annunzio's shadow that infosca la palude (“darkens the marsh”).^[3] It could also mean to soil, as of blood on the ground, and to tan the skin.^[3]

The figurative sense, of a mind clouded by passion or error, is in Tommaseo, and the pronominal infoscarsi meant to grow dark or to become sad.^[11] Saba writes par che s’infoschi / quello sguardo (“that look seems to darken”).^[2] The modern dictionaries mark the verb literary.^[6][2][8]

Timeline

• 13th century – DEI's date for the verb.^[10]
• 1481 – Zingarelli's date.^[2]
• Before 1498 – GRADIT's date.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (literary) To darken, to make gloomy, also figuratively: Il fumo dell’incendio infoscava il cielo.^{[4][6][2][8][1]}
2. (literary; intransitive or pronominal) To grow dark or gloomy: Verso sera il mare s’infoscò.^[6][5][2][8]

Word family

• infoscamento
• rinfoscare

Related words

• fosco
• offuscare
• Latin fuscus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e 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 d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2022
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET