puro

Forms

puro (feminine pura, masculine plural puri, feminine plural pure, superlative purissimo, adverb puramente)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pūrus (“clean, pure”).^[2][1][3] DELI treats it as a learned word, while Nocentini, Wiktionary and the REW count it among the inherited ones; the old diminutive puretto, which became pretto “pure, unmixed”, shows popular use.^[4][2][5] The same word is French pur, Occitan pur, Catalan pur, Spanish puro and Portuguese puro, and it passed into Brittonic as Breton pur.^[2][6]

The Latin adjective belonged to the vocabulary of religion.^[2][6] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂u-ro- (“clear, cleansed”), a stem shared with Celtic (Old Irish úr (“green, fresh”)) and related to the Indo-Iranian verbs for “to clean”.^[7] Nocentini links the root with one of the Indo-European words for fire as the purifier: the Old Umbrian form pir, Ancient Greek πῦρ (pŷr), Hittite paḫḫur and Old High German fiur.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini and GRADIT date the word to about 1225.^[2][3] DELI's first record is Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, in the sense “unstained by guilt or sin”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Dante, before 1321, has the material sense “not mixed with anything else”, of pure gold and silver.^[4][9] Galileo used it of a science not applied to practice (1630–1631), and Della Casa, before 1556, of something “mere, simple”: la pura verità.^[4] With Kant puro became a technical term of philosophy for knowledge independent of experience.^[6][10]

As a noun i puri were in 1923 the communists, who called themselves pure of any compromise with the bourgeoisie, against the socialists; later the word meant anyone who keeps to their convictions without compromise, and in sport an amateur athlete (1965).^[4] Purosangue “thoroughbred” follows French pur-sang, and purismo and purista come from French too.^[4][2]

Timeline

• About 1225 – First record.^[2][3]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses puro of moral purity.^[4]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it of unmixed substances.^[4]
• 1630–1631 – Galileo uses it of a pure science.^[4]
• 1838 – Cavalli di puro sangue is recorded.^[4]
• 1923 – Puri names the uncompromising communists.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Not mixed with anything else; in its natural state: acqua pura, oro puro, pura lana.^[3][11][12]
2. Clean, not polluted; of the sky, clear: l'aria pura delle colline.^[3][11][13]
3. Of an animal, of unmixed breed: un cane di razza pura.^[3][11][14]
4. Of a style or a language, free of foreign or dialect elements; of lines and forms, simple and elegant.^[3][11][12]
5. Of a science or a scholar, theoretical, not applied: matematica pura.^[3][11][10]
6. (philosophy) In Kant, of knowledge a priori, independent of experience: ragione pura.^[3][10][13]
7. (figurative) Morally clean, innocent; chaste: un cuore puro.^[12][14][10]
8. (before the noun) mere, sheer, nothing but: per puro caso, puro e semplice.^[3][10][13]

Noun

1. A person who keeps to their principles without compromise.^[10][4]

Word family

• purezza
• purificare
• purificatoio
• purificatore
• purificazione
• purismo
• purista
• puristico
• purità
• purosangue
• pretto
• impuro
• impurità
• appurare

Related words

• pure
• Latin pūrus

Usage notes

Puro was also an archaic form of the adverb pure “also, even”.^[1] DEI separates a philosophical puro of the 19th century, from Kant's use, as a second headword.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3156
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli