legnoso

Forms

legnoso (feminine legnosa, masculine plural legnosi, feminine plural legnose)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin lignōsus (“woody”), from lignum (“wood”) with the suffix -ōsus.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} GDLI calls it a learned word;^[2][7][1] Devoto sees the Latin form reshaped after legno, and Wiktionary also analyses it as the noun with the suffix -oso.^[2][7][1]

The Latin adjective passed into almost all the Romance languages, while ligneus (“wooden”) survives only in Sardinian.^[8] The cognates include Romanian lemnos, Spanish leñoso and Portuguese lenhoso.^[9]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *legno- and Proto-Indo-European *leǵ(h)-no-.^[10] De Vaan finds two derivations equally possible: from *leǵ- (“to collect”), as “wood gathered for the fire”, or, with Ritter, from *legʰ- (“to lie”), as “wood lying about”.^[10] The change of ⟨-egn-⟩ to ⟨-ign-⟩ is regular in Latin.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Devoto–Oli date the first record to before 1320, and Nocentini to the first half of the 14th century.^[4][5][3] DELI's first record, “made of wood”, is the Italian translation of Crescenzi of about 1350, where rue becomes woody when it grows old (“quando è invecchiata diventa legnosa”).^[11][2]

Semantic evolution

The figurative sense “lacking ease, stiff” appears before 1519 in Leonardo, and “as hard as wood” in 1681 in F. Baldinucci's Vocabolario toscano.^[11] Botany uses the word for woody tissue and for piante legnose, trees and shrubs as against herbaceous plants;^[12][13][2] Tommaseo already contrasts a woody stem with an herbaceous one.^[12][13][2]

Modern use extends the figure in many directions: tough, stringy meat, a hard and angular face, a dry and terse style, a gruff character, and a stiff way of moving, as of a boxer who drags his legs late in a fight.^[4][5][13] Wine that has taken on the taste of the cask is said to have a sapore legnoso.^[14][15]

Timeline

• Before 1320 – Legnoso is first recorded.^[4][5]
• c. 1350 – The Italian Crescenzi uses it for rue that turns woody.^[11][2]
• Before 1519 – Leonardo uses it for “lacking ease”.^[11]
• 17th century – Legnosità is recorded.^[8]
• 1681 – F. Baldinucci uses it for “as hard as wood”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. woody, made of or containing wood; in botany tessuto legnoso is woody tissue and piante legnose are trees and shrubs.^{[4][5][13][1]}
2. Hard and fibrous like wood, stringy: Questi asparagi sono duri e legnosi.^[4][5][14]
3. (figurative) Of a face or figure, hard and angular.^[4][5]
4. (figurative) Stiff, lacking ease of movement, wooden: Dopo la lunga corsa aveva le gambe legnose.^{[4][5][16][1]}
5. (figurative) Of a person's character, gruff, unfriendly.^[4][5][17]
6. (figurative) Of a literary style, dry and too terse.^[4][14][13]

Word family

• legnosità
• legnosamente

Related words

• legna
• legno
• Latin lignum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2197
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana