lordo

Forms

lordo (feminine lorda, masculine plural lordi, feminine plural lorde)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin lŭrdus, the spoken form of classical Latin lūridus (“sallow, livid”), which gave the learned lurido.^[2][3][4][5] Late Latin glossaries have lordus (“slow-moving”) and the spelling with ⟨u⟩, “limping”, in the 7th–8th centuries.^[6][7] DELI compares the shortening of sordidus, citing F. Brambilla Ageno (1973).^[2]

G. Alessio connected it instead with Ancient Greek λορδός (lordós, “bent backwards”), a view DELI finds unpersuasive.^[2] DEI derives it from the Greek word, and Zingarelli and Treccani see a crossing of the Latin and Greek words.^[6][8][7] GRADIT allows that the Greek word may be connected, and Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain and also mentions Frankish *lort (“crooked, lame, clumsy”).^[9][1]

The same word is French lourd (“heavy”), Occitan lort (“foolish”), Catalan llort (“dirty”), Spanish lerdo (“slow, sluggish”) and Portuguese lerdo.^[3][10] Nocentini explains the spread of senses: from “yellowish, livid”, the colour of bile, to “dirty, disgusting” from the look of people with jaundice, then to “heavy” and on to “slow” and “foolish”.^[3]

The origin of the Latin adjective is very uncertain.^[11] De Vaan cites a link with Celtic words for light, and another with līvidus (“bluish”).^[11][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest dated record is the figurative sense “impure, vicious”, in Iacopone da Todi, before 1306.^[2] The concrete sense “dirty, smeared” follows in Dante, 1300–1313, and in Z. Bencivenni, 1310.^[2] In the Inferno Dante writes ch'i' ti conosco, ancor sie lordo tutto (“for I know you, filthy as you are all over”).^[12][7] Zingarelli dates the word to 1268.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio uses it for moral filth, la vita scelerata e lorda de' cherici (“the wicked and foul life of the clergy”).^[13][7] Tommaseo remarks that lordo is stronger than brutto and more common in all the dialects of Italy.^[13]

The commercial sense, a weight from which the tare has not been taken or a sum from which costs have not been deducted, appears in 1319 in the Libro di Nesone.^[2] Nocentini explains it as the “dirty” weight opposed to the “clean” one, netto.^[3] In 1855 Ugolini still called these expressions of mercantile usage.^[2] Today the economic sense is the living one: prodotto interno lordo is gross domestic product.^[9][1]

Derivatives appear early: lordura before 1292, in B. Giamboni, lordare before 1311, in Giordano da Pisa, lordezza before 1342, in Cavalca, and lordume before 1704, in Menzini.^[2]

Timeline

• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses lordo figuratively, “impure”.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for “dirty” in the Inferno.^[2][12]
• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses lordare.^[2][3]
• 1319 – The Libro di Nesone uses it of a gross weight or amount.^[2]
• 1561 – Viani uses it of weight.^[14]
• 1855 – Ugolini calls the commercial phrases mercantile usage.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (chiefly literary) Dirty, filthy, smeared: un grembiule lordo di vernice.^{[9][15][8][1]}
2. (figurative, literary) Morally corrupt, impure, vicious: un passato lordo di delitti.^[9][8][4]
3. (economics, commerce) gross: of a weight that includes the tare, or of a sum from which costs, taxes or deductions have not been taken: Il suo reddito lordo supera i trentamila euro.^{[9][8][15][1]}
4. (nautical) In stazza lorda and portata lorda, the gross tonnage of a ship and the total load it can carry.^[15][7]

Noun

1. The gross weight or gross amount, as opposed to the net.^[9][8] Al lordo means before deductions: Guadagna duemila euro al lordo delle tasse.^{[9][8][15][16][1]}

Word family

• lordare
• lordezza
• lordume
• lordura
• lordamente

Related words

• lurido
• balordo
• Latin luridus
• French lourd

Usage notes

The opposite is netto.^[8][4] An obsolete metallo lordo was metal mixed with slag.^[8][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2270
7. ^ 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)
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 602
15. ^ 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
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana