ottuso

Forms

ottuso (feminine ottusa, masculine plural ottusi, feminine plural ottuse)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian obtuso and Old Italian optuso, with the Latin spelling of the prefix.^[2]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin obtūsus (“blunted, dulled”), the past participle of obtundō (“to beat against; to blunt”), which also gave Italian ottundere.^{[3][4][5][2][1]} Zingarelli also calls it a learned word, and Treccani sees it as the participle of the Italian verb, made on the model of the Latin one.^[6][7] The Latin verb is formed from ob- (“against”) and tundō (“to strike, beat”).^[3][8] De Vaan traces the simple verb to a PIE nasal present Proto-Indo-European *(s)tu-n-d- (“to thrust”).^[9]

The senses of the Latin participle explain those of the Italian word: “beaten” led to “stunned, dull-witted”, and an angle that is less pointed is “widened”, hence the obtuse angle.^[3][10][11] Late Latin already had the compound obtūsiangulus (“obtuse-angled”), in the land surveyors of the 6th century, and the noun obtūsitās, in Serenus Sammonicus in the 3rd century.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are in Dante, who died in 1321: the geometrical sense of an angle wider than a right angle, and the figurative sense of something lacking clearness, brightness or resonance.^[3] Zingarelli dates the word to 1282, and Nocentini and Devoto–Oli to the 14th century.^[6][4][12]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense “without a point or an edge”, of a blade or a weapon, is recorded only from the 16th century, in Annibal Caro, Benedetto Varchi, Giovanni Andrea Della Croce and Torquato Tasso.^[3] Varchi explains that pointed things pierce and sting far more than blunt and dulled ones (l'ottuse e rintuzzate), and in Tasso's Gerusalemme liberata a sword that has gone blunt crushes and no longer cuts (spezza, e non taglia; e divenendo ottuso).^[2][13] Della Croce's surgery speaks of a blow from a blunt instrument that bruises the head without breaking the skin.^[13]

Today the literal sense is literary or uncommon, and the usual sense is the figurative one of a person slow to understand, or a look or a remark that shows it.^[12][7][5] Other figurative senses describe dulled senses, a muffled sound and a cramped, dark room.^[5][12] The derivatives ottusangolo (before 1615, Della Porta) and ottusità (1681) followed.^[3]

Timeline

• Before 1321 – Dante uses the word for an obtuse angle and, figuratively, for something dim or muffled.^[3]
• 16th century – Caro, Varchi, Della Croce and Tasso use it of a blunt blade or weapon.^[3]
• Before 1615 – Giambattista Della Porta has ottusangolo, of a triangle with an obtuse angle.^[3]
• 1681 – Ottusità is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary or uncommon) Not sharp or pointed: blunt, dull: un coltello ottuso non taglia il pane.^[5][12][14]
2. (figurative) Slow to understand, of limited intelligence; also of a look or expression that shows this: obtuse, dense.^[5][12][10]
3. (figurative, uncommon) Of a sense: dulled, with reduced perception: un olfatto ottuso.^[5][12][7]
4. (figurative) Of a sound: dull, muffled, with little resonance.^[5][12][6]
5. (figurative, uncommon) Of a room or place: cramped and dark.^[5][12][10]
6. (geometry) Of an angle: greater than a right angle and less than a straight angle: angolo ottuso.^[5][12][7]
7. (botany) Of the tip of a plant organ: blunt, rounded.^[5][14][15]

Word family

• ottusità
• ottusamente
• ottusangolo
• ottusezza

Related words

• ottundere
• Latin obtūsus
• Latin tundō

References

1. ^ a b c 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, p. 12, 292
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2707
9. ^ 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 c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org