orrore

Forms

orrore m (plural orrori)^[1] An older spelling is horrore.^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin horror (“shuddering; dread”),^{[2][3][4][5][1]} formed from horreō (“to stand stiffly on end, shudder”) with the suffix -or.^[6][1][3] The verb first meant to feel the hair stand on end as the bodily sign of chilling fear; within Latin Nocentini compares hirsūtus (“shaggy”) and hirtus (“bristly”).^[3][7]

The same Latin word is French horreur (12th century), Spanish horror and Portuguese horror.^[3][4][8] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *χors-ē- (“to be stiff”) and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰr̥s-eh₁- (“to be stiff, surprised”) for the verb.^[9] Wiktionary has the noun from Proto-Italic *horzōs and Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰórsōs, from the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers- (“stiff; surprised”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Ammaestramenti degli antichi of about 1300, with the sense of a violent feeling of revulsion and dread: L'orrore della morte, lo pericolo del giudicio, la paura dello 'nferno (“the horror of death, the danger of judgement, the fear of hell”).^[2][10][3] Zingarelli dates the word to 1294.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Before 1347 Bartolomeo da San Concordio used orrore for what causes the feeling, and Dante wrote Io ch'avea d'orror la testa cinta (“I, whose head was girt with horror”) in the Inferno.^[2][12] Petrarch used it for the darkness of a forest, un solitario orrore d'ombrosa selva.^[11][13] From Bembo (1505) it meant a deep, reverent fear.^[2] Sacro orrore is awe before the divine, today mostly joking.^[14][13]

In the 17th century orrore del vuoto translated the scholastic Latin horror vacui, nature's supposed horror of empty space, invoked to explain the rise of water in empty tubes before Torricelli's experiment of 1643.^[4][12] The hyperbolic sense “something hideous” and the familiar “a huge amount” (costa un orrore) are recorded before 1858, in Guadagnoli.^[2][15] Film dell'orrore names the horror film.^[14][13]

Timeline

• 1294 – Zingarelli's date for orrore.^[11]
• About 1300 – The Ammaestramenti degli antichi use the word.^[2][10]
• Before 1347 – Bartolomeo da San Concordio uses it for what causes horror.^[2]
• 1505 – Bembo uses orrore for deep reverent fear.^[2]
• 17th century – Orrore del vuoto translates horror vacui.^[4]
• Before 1858 – Guadagnoli uses orrore for “an enormity”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. horror: a strong feeling of revulsion mixed with fear, caused by something cruel or repugnant: un urlo d'orrore.^{[5][14][7][1]}
2. Usually in the plural, what causes such a feeling: gli orrori della carestia.^{[5][14][7][11]}
3. loathing, strong aversion: avere in orrore something, to detest it.^{[5][14][11][1]}
4. (hyperbolic) Something or someone very ugly: Quel cappotto è un orrore.^[5][14][7]
5. (familiar) An enormous amount: costare un orrore.^[15][2]
6. (literary) Awe and dismay before darkness or the divine: sacro orrore.^{[5][14][7][11]}

Word family

• orroroso
• orrifico

Related words

• orrendo
• orribile
• orrido
• orrire
• orripilare
• irsuto
• irto
• Latin horror
• French horreur

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
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 c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ 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
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli