ombroso

Forms

ombroso (feminine ombrosa, masculine plural ombrosi, feminine plural ombrose)^[1] An old form is Old Italian umbroso.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin umbrōsus (“shady”), from umbra (“shadow, shade”) with the suffix -ōsus.^[3][4][5][1] DEI calls the word pan-Romance: Romanian umbros, Sardinian umbrozu, Romansh ombrus, French ombreux, Old Occitan ombros and Catalan ombros.^[6][7] Spanish sombroso and Portuguese sombroso were made on Spanish sombra.^[7]

De Vaan connects umbra with Lithuanian ùnksna (“shade”) and reconstructs Proto-Italic *unksrā-, but no root of fitting meaning is known.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Simintendi's translation of Ovid (before 1333) has the first record, used of horses that shy: pazzi cavalli e ancora ombrosi per la paura, “mad horses, still skittish with fear”.^[9][3] The Zingarelli's date is before 1328.^[10]

Semantic evolution

DELI dates the sense “shady, full of shade” to Petrarch (1374), whose M'han fatto abitador d'ombroso bosco makes him a dweller in a shady wood.^[9][2] In Boccaccio a stream runs down into a shady valley.^[2][11] The word often carries a sense of idyllic coolness and shelter from the heat.^[2]

From the horse that takes fright at shadows, the word passed to people who take offence at nothing, a sense DELI dates to Giannotti (before 1573).^[9][12] Old senses were “melancholy, loving darkness” and, of a colour, “dull, opaque”.^[3][13][12]

Timeline

• Before 1328 – The Zingarelli's date of first record.^[10]
• Before 1333 – Simintendi uses ombroso of skittish horses.^[9]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses the word for a shady wood.^[9]
• Before 1573 – Giannotti uses it of a touchy person.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. shady, sheltered from the sun, full of shade: un viottolo ombroso.^{[3][13][14][1]}
2. Giving shade: un platano ombroso.^[3][13][15]
3. Of a horse, skittish, easily frightened.^[3][13][1]
4. (figurative) Of a person or a character, touchy, suspicious, quick to take offence.^{[3][13][14][1]}
5. (archaic) Sad, melancholy, loving darkness.^[3][13][15]
6. (archaic) Of a colour, dull, opaque.^[3][13][15]
7. Of a plant, growing best in the shade.^[14]

Word family

• ombrosità
• ombrosamente

Related words

• ombra
• adombrare
• Latin umbrōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, p. 11, 923
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2647
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d e f g 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 c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana