nero

Forms

nero (feminine nera, masculine plural neri, feminine plural nere, superlative nerissimo, diminutive nerétto or nerettìno or nerìno or (rare) neréllo or (rare) nerellìno)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin niger (“black, dark”), continuing its accusative, with the loss of /g/ before /r/.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Devoto compares the same loss in intero from Latin integer, through a spoken form Vulgar Latin *nirus like Vulgar Latin *interus.^[6][7] The same word is French noir, Occitan negre, Catalan negre, Spanish negro, Portuguese negro and Romanian negru.^[3][8][9] Sardinian instead uses nieddu, from the diminutive Latin nigellus, so DÉRom reconstructs Proto-Romance */ˈnɪɡr-u/ only for the continental languages.^[3][10] The learned borrowing negro is a doublet of the same Latin word.^[3][1]

The origin of the Latin adjective is unknown: de Vaan and Nocentini find no sure cognates outside Latin.^[11][3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is a Florentine text of 1279, and Bono Giamboni (before 1292) uses the word for anything of a deep dark colour, as opposed to a light one.^[2] In Giamboni a huge knight comes forward “tutto armato d'arme nere” (all armed in black armour).^[7] The noun “the colour black” is in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante (before 1321) gives the adjective the sense “sad, wicked”.^[2] In the political struggles of Tuscany at the end of the 13th century the Neri (Blacks) were one of the factions into which the Guelphs split.^[12] Tommaseo reports the story that the name arose in Pistoia among the Cancellieri family.^[12][13] In the 20th century the colour came to stand for the clergy, for Fascism and for shady dealings.^[12][5]

Paolo Monelli traced mercato nero “black market” to borsa nera, the illegal currency trade after the First World War, and the phrase was in full use by 1941.^[2] Scatola nera, the flight recorder, is a calque of English black box in that sense, used from 1964.^[2] In draughts and chess il nero is the player with the black pieces (1958).^[2] Older derivatives are neretto “blackish” (13th century), later a bold typeface (1918, Gramsci), nerezza (about 1350), nerume (before 1342) and nerastro (before 1730).^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1279 – Nero is recorded in a Florentine text.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it for a dark colour.^[2]
• Late 13th century – The noun “black” appears in the Novellino.^[2]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for “sad, wicked”.^[2]
• 1918 – Gramsci uses neretto for bold type.^[2]
• 1941 – Mercato nero is in common use.^[2]
• 1958 – Nero is recorded for the player with the black pieces.^[2]
• 1964 – Scatola nera is used for a flight recorder, after English black box.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. black, of the darkest colour, like coal or ink: Ha un gatto tutto nero con gli occhi gialli.^{[4][14][5][1]}
2. (physics) Absorbing all radiation: corpo nero, a black body, buco nero, a black hole.^[4][14][15]
3. Of mourning: paramenti neri, black hangings.^[4][5][16]
4. Dark as opposed to lighter kinds: vino nero, red wine of dark grapes, caffè nero, coffee without milk, and of the sky, overcast.^[4][16][15]
5. Tanned, or dark-haired: Sei tornata dal mare nerissima!^[4][15]
6. Of a person, black-skinned.^[4][16]
7. Very dirty: Ha sempre le unghie nere.^[4][5][16]
8. (figurative) Gloomy, unlucky or wicked: una giornata nera, a terrible day, la pecora nera, the black sheep.^[4][5][15]
9. Of Fascism or the far right: le camicie nere, the Blackshirts.^[5][16][1]
10. (figurative) Illegal, hidden from the authorities: lavoro nero, undeclared work, mercato nero.^[5][15][7]

Noun

1. The colour black: Si veste sempre di nero.^[14][5][1]
2. A black person.^[5][1]
3. A Fascist or member of the far right, and in the Middle Ages a member of the Black faction.^[5][1]
4. (typography) Bold type (also neretto).^[14][5]
5. in nero: off the books, without paying tax: pagare in nero.^[5]
6. (chemistry) A black dye or pigment: nero di seppia, squid ink.^[14][5]

Word family

• nerastro
• nereggiare
• neretto
• nerezza
• nericcio
• nerofumo
• nerognolo
• nerume
• annerire

Related words

• negro
• Latin niger

Usage notes

DEI records forms of the type negro in the dialects of the north (Venice, Lombardy, Emilia, eastern Piedmont, Liguria), niuru, nìvuru and nìguru in Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily, and the Byzantine Greek type mauro in the most Greek parts of the Salento and Calabria.^[12] A different, obsolete nero “water” in 16th-century jocular verse is the Modern Greek nerò.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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 d e f g h i 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 j k l m n Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 370
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
11. ^ 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 c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2573
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 3, 470
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 375