lezzo

Forms

lezzo m (plural lezzi)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian lezzare (“to stink”), an older verb: a deverbal noun.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The verb is olezzare (“to give off a scent”) with the first vowel dropped (aphaeresis).^[2][3][6][1] The longer verb originally had the neutral sense “to give off a smell”; the short form was used euphemistically for “to stink”, much as Italian odore “smell” can mean a bad smell.^[3] Devoto–Oli calls the change of sense antiphrastic.^[7]

That verb goes back to Vulgar Latin *olidiāre, formed from olidus (“smelling”).^[2][3][1] This is oleō (“to smell”) with the suffix -idus.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Florentine poet Rustico Filippi, in the second half of the 13th century, with the sense “a repugnant smell”.^[9] DELI dates the word to Dante's Inferno (1300–1313), where a valley of Hell sends its stench up to the poets: che ’nfin là sù facea spiacer suo lezzo (“whose stench was unpleasant even up there”).^[2][10][11]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already had the phrase gettare lezzo “to give off a stench” and a figurative sense, the revulsion caused by shameful conduct.^[9] Boccaccio speaks of lezzo caprino, the reek of goats, and Franco Sacchetti of throwing out lezzo di becco, the stink of a billy goat.^[11]

From the stench the word passed to its cause: filth, the slime of ditches and puddles, and then dirt in general and moral squalor, as in being raised nel lezzo.^[11][6][12] In the 17th and 18th centuries Salvini set lezzo against olezzo: the one is taken for a good smell, the other for a horrible one.^[10][11] An adjective lezzo “stinking”, used in Landino's Pliny and in Bellini's Bucchereide, is now obsolete.^[10][11][12]

Timeline

• 1250–1300 – Rustico Filippi uses lezzo.^[9]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the word in the Inferno.^[2]
• 1300s – Franco Sacchetti has gettar lezzo di becco.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong, repulsive stench, especially from dirt or rotting matter: Dal cassonetto aperto saliva un lezzo nauseante.^{[4][7][5][12][1]}
2. (by extension) filth, dirt;^{[5][6][12][7]} (figurative, literary) moral degradation: gettar lezzo, to stink.^{[5][6][12][7]}

Word family

• lezzone
• lezzoso
• lezzume

Related words

• olezzo
• olezzare
• lezzare
• Latin olidus

Usage notes

Lezzo is the bad-smelling counterpart of the literary olezzo “fragrance”, which comes from the same verb.^[2][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ 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)
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
10. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d e f Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli