ostro

ostro¹ purple

Pronunciation

• /ˈɔs.tro/^[1]

Forms

ostro m (plural ostri)^[1]

Etymology

The word for purple is learned: it is borrowed from Latin ostrum (“purple dye; purple cloth”).^[2][3][4][5] DELI takes the Latin word as a parallel form of ostreum (“oyster”) that came to mean “purple”, while referring to doubts raised by Alessio.^[2] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ὄστρεον (óstreon, “oyster”), the name of the shellfish from which the red dye was taken, and so also of its colour.^{[3][6][7][8][1]} Lucretius also spells the Latin word austrum.^[8] It is also Spanish ostro.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Boccaccio's Teseida (1339–1340), where the top of a funeral pyre is covered d'un drappo in ostro tirio con oro / tinto (“with a cloth dyed in Tyrian purple and gold”).^[2][9][10]

Semantic evolution

In 1374 Petrarch uses the word for a cloth dyed purple, and in the plural it became a sign of royal or cardinal rank.^[2][4][7] In poetry it named the colour of roses and of the cheeks: Bandello, before 1561, has it for a rosy complexion.^[2][10][11]

DEI dates the word only to the 16th century, with Firenzuola, and records the adjective ostrico.^[12] Modern dictionaries mark it as literary, a synonym of porpora.^[4][6][7]

Timeline

• 1339–1340 – Boccaccio uses ostro for purple dye.^[2]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses it for purple cloth.^[2]
• Before 1561 – Matteo Bandello uses it for a rosy complexion.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) Purple (porpora), the red dye taken from certain shellfish.^{[4][6][7][5][1]}
2. (literary) A deep red or vermilion colour.^[4][13]
3. (literary) The rosy colour of the skin.^{[4][14][5][7]}
4. (literary) Cloth or a garment dyed purple; in the plural, the purple of kings or cardinals.^[4][6][7]

Word family

• inostrare
• ostrico

ostro² south wind

Pronunciation

• /ˈɔs.tro/^[1]

Forms

ostro m (plural ostri)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the south wind is inherited from Latin auster (“south wind”), with the diphthong /au/ reduced to /o/.^{[2][3][10][15][1]} DELI considers it probably a Venetian formation that spread from Venice, after Metzeltin.^[2] The learned form of the same Latin word is austro.^[2][16]

The Latin noun also survives in Romanian austru, Old French ostre and Old Occitan austre, and Ragusan uòstro.^[3][15][16] Spanish austro and Portuguese austro are learned.^[15][16] De Vaan reconstructs the Latin noun as Proto-Italic *aus-tero- (“towards the dawn”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eus-tero-, and thinks it may still be related to the Germanic words for the east, such as Old High German ōstara (“Easter”), although these name a different direction.^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the feminine ostra “south wind” in the Tuscan Bestiary of about 1300.^[2][3][4] The LEI dates the masculine from 1320, in the portolan of Pietro Vesconte, and DELI from the vernacular Palladius of about 1340.^[16][2]

Semantic evolution

The word belongs to the language of navigation and of the wind rose: Venetian portolans of 1444 and 1490 have it, and compass points such as ostro garbino and ostro sirocco name the winds between south and south-west or south-east.^[16][10] Ariosto speaks of a fleet driven da Borea o d'Ostro.^[11][18]

By extension it named the south itself: in 1561 Giuseppe Moleto wrote I nostri il chiamano ostro, e mezzogiorno; e quelli del mar Oceano, sut (“our people call it ostro and midday; those of the Ocean sea, sut”).^[2][11] It lives on in Venetian ostro, Mantuan lòster, Sicilian ostru and the dialects of the Adriatic coast.^[16][18][15] English borrowed it as ostro.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – The Tuscan Bestiary has the feminine ostra.^[2][3]
• 1320 – Pietro Vesconte uses ostro in his portolan.^[16]
• c. 1340 – The vernacular Palladius uses ostro.^[2]
• 1561 – Giuseppe Moleto uses it for the south as a cardinal point.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) The south wind; austro.^{[4][6][14][5][7][1]}
2. (literary) The south, as a cardinal point.^{[4][6][14][5][7]}

Word family

• ostrogarbino