naso

Forms

naso m (plural nasi, diminutive nasino)^[1] Old Italian forms include nas, Old Italian nasso, Old Italian nasu and Old Italian naxo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nāsus (“nose”).^[3][4][5][1] The same word is French nez, Occitan nas, Catalan nas, Sardinian nasu and Romanian nas, while Spanish naso and Portuguese naso mean a big nose.^[4][6] Latin also had nāris (“nostril”) and a spelling nassus.^[7][8]

Latin “nāsus” belongs to an old Indo-European word for the nose, Proto-Indo-European *néh₂s, found in Sanskrit नासा (nā́sā), Lithuanian nósis, Old Church Slavonic носъ (nosŭ), Old High German nasa and Old English nosu.^[4][1][9] De Vaan sets up Proto-Italic stems *nās-, *nāsi- and *nāso-, and thinks that Latin remade an old dual “the nostrils” as a plural.^[9] The ⟨s⟩ between vowels should have become ⟨r⟩ in Latin: de Vaan calls it hard to explain, perhaps a relic from before rhotacism or from another social layer, while Devoto ascribes it to an expressive doubled pronunciation.^[9][8]

The Latin adjective nāsūtus came into Italian by the learned route as nasuto.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Monza glossary of the 10th century;^[2][10][3] DELI's first record is the early 13th-century Canzone del fi' Aldobrandino, for the projecting part of the face between forehead and mouth, the organ of smell.^[2][10][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already used the word for the sense of smell and in fixed phrases: torcere il naso “to wrinkle one's nose”, menare per il naso “to lead by the nose”, especially by long empty promises, and toccare il naso “to provoke someone”.^[2] Boccaccio has prendere per il naso, and in astronomy the naso was a pair of stars, Alpha and Beta Centauri.^[11][2] The sense “flair, judgement” is first recorded in Francesco Berni (before 1535), and Annibal Caro has avere naso.^[3][11]

Derivatives include nasuto (Dante), nasale (before 1566, Caro; in phonetics from 1778, the nasal consonant from 1870, Ascoli) and nasiera, the ring in a bull's nose (1829).^[3] French slang nase “nose” (1835) may come from Italian or from Provençal.^[12]

Timeline

• 10th century – Naso appears in the Monza glossary.^[2]
• Early 13th century – The Canzone del fi' Aldobrandino uses it.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses nasuto.^[3]
• Before 1535 – Francesco Berni uses naso for flair.^[3]
• Before 1566 – Annibal Caro uses nasale.^[3]
• 1835 – French slang nase is recorded.^[12]
• 1870 – Ascoli uses nasale for a nasal consonant.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The nose, the part of the face between the forehead and the upper lip, with the nostrils at its base: Si è rotto il naso giocando a calcio.^[5][13][14]
2. The corresponding part of an animal's muzzle: il naso del gatto.^[5][10]
3. By extension, the face: sbattere la porta sul naso a qualcuno.^[5][10]
4. The sense of smell: Il mio cane ha un ottimo naso.^[5][10]
5. (figurative) Intuition, flair: Ha sempre avuto naso per gli investimenti..^[5][3]
6. A professional smeller, as in perfumery.^[5]
7. Something shaped like a nose, such as the spout of a jug or the front of a saddle.^[5][10]
8. (zoology) A fish of the genus Chondrostoma with a long snout (Chondrostoma nasus).^[5]

Word family

• nasale
• nasone
• nasino
• nasetto
• nasuto
• nasiera
• nasello
• nasata
• sottonaso

Related words

• narice
• annusare
• Latin nasus
• French nez

Usage notes

Common phrases include ficcare il naso “to poke one's nose” into something, menare per il naso “to lead by the nose”, restare con un palmo di naso “to be left disappointed”, a lume di naso “by guesswork” and avere la puzza sotto il naso “to be stuck-up”.^[5][14][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2549
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
12. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
13. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana