lacrimoso

Forms

lacrimoso (feminine lacrimosa, masculine plural lacrimosi, feminine plural lacrimose)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin lacrimōsus (“tearful; causing tears”), formed from lacrima (“tear”) and the suffix -ōsus.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} DELI places lacrimōsus in poetic and post-classical Latin, and Zingarelli and Gabrielli call it Late Latin.^[6][7][8] Within Italian it also reads as lacrima with the suffix -oso.^[1] Old Italian also had lagrimoso and lagremoso, with ⟨-gr-⟩.^[9][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Andrea da Grosseto's Tuscan translation of 1268, with the sense “wet with tears”.^[9][7]

Semantic evolution

In the 14th century the medical translation of Pietro Ispano prescribes egg white for occhi lagrimosi (“watering eyes”).^[6][5] Dante wrote Porsi ver’ lui le guance lagrimose (“I turned my tearful cheeks towards him”).^[10][8] The causative sense “moving to tears” is in the Leandreide of about 1375.^[6] The TLIO also has “worthy of pity” and, of plants, “exuding sap or resin”.^[9] Leopardi called death il passo lacrimoso e duro.^[10]

In the history of theatre the commedia lacrimosa is the sentimental comedy.^[3][10] In music lacrimoso was applied to the Lydian mode in 1649, and lagrimoso became a performance direction: French has lachrimoso from 1703, and English and German have lagrimoso, German from 1802.^[11] Today the word often means “mawkish”, of a story or an ending.^[3][12][7]

Timeline

• 1268 – Andrea da Grosseto uses lacrimoso.^[9][7]
• 14th century – The Tuscan Pietro Ispano has occhi lagrimosi.^[6]
• c. 1375 – The Leandreide uses it for “moving to tears”.^[6]
• 1649 – A musical text calls the Lydian mode lacrimoso.^[11]
• 1703 – French has the musical term lachrimoso.^[11]
• 1802 – German has the musical term lagrimoso.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the eyes: full of tears, watery.^[3][12] Of the face: wet with tears.^[3][13] Of a person (uncommon): tearful, weeping.^{[3][12][13][1]}
2. Moving to tears, sad: una vicenda lacrimosa.^[3][12][7]
3. Excessively sentimental, mawkish: un film dal finale lacrimoso.^{[3][12][7][1]}
4. (rare) Of a plant: exuding sap drop by drop.^[3][12][7]

Word family

• lacrimosamente
• lacrimosità

Related words

• lacrima
• lacrimare
• Latin lacrimosus

Usage notes

Lagrimoso is a literary variant.^[12][13][7] The ⟨s⟩ is pronounced either /z/ or /s/.^[1][7] Commedia lacrimosa is a set phrase.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 8
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
12. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse