osso

Forms

osso m (plural (collective) ossa f or (individual) ossi m)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian oso and Old Italian ossu; the old plural was also le osse or gli osse.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ossum (“bone”), the popular form of classical os (“bone”).^[4][5][6][1] The grammarian Charisius records it, and Saint Augustine set the popular form against the correct Latin one; the popular form is the one the Romance languages continue.^[4][7] Latin had it from Accius on.^[8][9] The Italian feminine plural in -a continues the Latin neuter plural.^[10][2]

The word is found across the Romance languages: French os, Occitan os, Catalan os, Spanish hueso, Portuguese osso, Sardinian ossu, Romanian os and Dalmatian vuas.^[5][11][1]

The classical word goes back to Proto-Italic *ōs and Proto-Indo-European *h₃ésth₁ (“bone”).^[1][8] Its cognates include Ancient Greek ὀστέον (ostéon), Hittite haštāi and Albanian asht.^[8][5] Nocentini connects a variant root with initial k with Latin costa (“rib; side”).^[5][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Nocentini date the first record to the second half of the 13th century.^[6][5] DELI's earliest sense, at the end of the 13th century in the Novellino, is the remains of a decomposed body.^[4] Giamboni describes the brain's dwelling as tutta di fortissimo osso murata, “walled all round with very strong bone”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the word for the bones of the skeleton (1300–1313): in the Inferno a sinner takes the skull again in teeth che furo a l'osso, come d'un can, forti, “strong on the bone as a dog's”.^[4][13] He also used it for worked bone (before 1321).^[4] In the 14th century osso also meant the stone of a fruit, as in the translation of Crescenzi, where the stone of the date palm è l'osso del dattero; northern dialects still use it so.^[4][14][7] From 1561 the word was also used for structures that do the work of a bone, such as the cuttlebone (osso di seppia).^[4][10]

The derivatives include ossame in Dante, ossuto in 1359 and ossatura, the skeleton and figuratively a framework, in the 16th century.^[4] Ossobuco, a slice of veal shin with its marrow bone, is the Milanese òs büs, “bone with a hole”, recorded before 1869.^[4][5] The biscuits called ossi di morto look like the bones of the dead;^[4] Zolli concluded they are not the same as the fave dei morti made for All Souls' Day.^[4] French ossature (1801) was taken from Italian.^[7]

Timeline

• 1250–1300 – First record.^[6][5]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it for the remains of a body.^[4]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for the bones of the skeleton.^[4]
• About 1340 – The translation of Palladius uses ossa for fruit stones.^[4]
• 1561 – It is used for bone-like structures in other animals.^[4]
• 1801 – French ossature is borrowed from Italian.^[7]
• Before 1869 – Ossobuco is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) A bone, one of the hard parts that make up the skeleton of vertebrates: Cadendo dalla bicicletta si è rotto un osso del polso.^[6][15][10]
2. A bone of a butchered animal, raw or cooked (plural ossi).^[6][16]
3. Bone as a material for making objects: un pettine d'osso.^[6][10]
4. (botany) The stone of a fruit, pit.^[6][10][1]
5. Something that serves as a bone in invertebrates, as the osso di seppia, the cuttlebone.^[10][4]
6. (plural, jocular) One's body: le mie povere ossa.^[6][10]
7. (plural) Mortal remains.^[6][10]

Word family

• ossame
• ossario
• ossatura
• osseina
• osseo
• ossicino
• ossifero
• ossificare
• ossificazione
• ossobuco
• ossuto
• ossuario
• disossare
• soprosso

Related words

• ossicolo
• ossoso
• osteo-
• Latin os

Usage notes

The plural is le ossa (feminine) for the bones of the body taken together, and gli ossi (masculine) for single bones of animals, fruit stones and figurative uses.^[3][10][17] Common idioms are in carne e ossa, “in person”, pelle e ossa, “skin and bone”, farsi le ossa, “to gain experience”, un osso duro, “a hard nut to crack”, and rompersi l'osso del collo, “to break one's neck”.^[3][15][18]

An old osso in Cellini's insult hai cara d'osso is a separate word, an adaptation of Spanish oso “bear”.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2697
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
15. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
17. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
18. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
19. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12, 237