oro

Forms

oro m (plural ori)^[1] Old forms with the diphthong, such as Venetian auro (1281–1284), Roman, Neapolitan auro and Sicilian auru, were common in the north and south; in Tuscan they count as learned.^[2] Poetry also has auro and the shortened or.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aurum (“gold”), pronounced early as “ōrum”: Festus notes that country people called the gilthead fish “orata” after the colour of gold, which they said “orum”.^[5][6][7][1] The word lives on in every Romance language: French or, Occitan aur, Catalan or, Spanish oro, Portuguese ouro, Romanian aur and Vegliote yaur;^[6][2][8] Sardinian “oro” is a loan from Italian.^[6][2][8]

Latin “aurum” goes back to an older ausum, recorded as Sabine by Festus, and to Proto-Italic *auzom.^[6][9][1] Its closest relatives are Old Prussian ausis and Lithuanian áuksas, both “gold”; the Tocharian words are explained by de Vaan's source as loans from Uralic.^[6][9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *h₂é-h₂us-o- (“glow”), Wiktionary also *h₂éws-o-m, from the root *h₂ews- (“to dawn, shine”) that is also in Latin aurōra (“dawn”).^{[9][1][6][10]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Tuscan treatise of 1264, for the yellow precious metal.^[5][6][7] Bono Giamboni, about 1292, describes a palace whose diamond walls were lavorate sottilmente ad oro (“finely worked with gold”).^[11][2]

Semantic evolution

The Latin senses continued without a break: the metal, its colour, things made of gold and gold coin.^[2] The Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, uses oro for a gold coin, Dante (1313–1319) for money and wealth, and Petrarch (1374) for a shining yellow colour;^[5] Vasari has the plural for gold objects in 1550.^[5] In 1958 the word is recorded for the suit of coins in Neapolitan playing cards.^[5]

Giambattista Vico read the golden age as an “age of grain”, from the colour of ripe wheat.^[5] Modern Italian uses d'oro for anything precious or lucky, such as affare d'oro “a splendid deal”, cuore d'oro and parole d'oro, and journalists in the 1990s used it for goods bought by public bodies at inflated prices, as in lenzuola d'oro “golden sheets”.^[7][4] Oro nero is petroleum.^[12]

Timeline

• 1264 – A Tuscan treatise uses oro for the metal.^[5]
• 1281–1284 – Venetian auro is recorded.^[2]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for a gold coin.^[5]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses it for wealth.^[5]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses it for the colour of gold.^[5]
• 1550 – Vasari uses the plural for gold objects.^[5]
• 1958 – It is recorded for a suit of Neapolitan cards.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chemistry) gold, the chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79, a soft, heavy, yellow and very malleable noble metal.^[7][13][14]
2. Gold as the precious metal of jewellery and coins: una catenina d'oro a diciotto carati.^[7][12][3]
3. (economics) Gold as the basis of a currency: riserve d'oro.^[14]
4. (figurative) Money, riches.^[5][1]
5. The colour of gold, a bright shining yellow: capelli d'oro.^[3][5]
6. (plural) Gold objects, jewels: gli ori della nonna.^[3][1]
7. (plural) One of the four suits of Neapolitan playing cards, also called denari.^[3][5]
8. (sport) A gold medal.^[1][4]
9. (heraldry) or, the gold or yellow tincture.^[1]

Adjective

1. Gold-coloured, after a noun and invariable: un vestito oro.^[7][1]

Word family

• orefice
• oreficeria
• orpello
• dorare
• indorare
• similoro
• pandoro
• pomodoro

Related words

• dorato
• aureo
• aureola
• aurifero
• aurora
• Latin aurum

Usage notes

Prendere per oro colato, literally “to take for molten gold”, means to believe something without question.^[12][1] Oro zecchino is pure gold, like that of the Venetian sequin.^[14][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 3, 2509
3. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
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 c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana