riso

riso¹ laughter

Etymology tree of riso¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin rīdeō

French rire

Italian ridere

Spanish reír

Latin rīsus

Italian riso

From the same root · riso¹

Latin dērīdeō ← rīdeō

Latin irrīdeō ← rīdeō

Latin rīdiculus ← rīdeō

Latin rīsibilis ← rīdeō

Latin subrīdeō ← rīdeō

Spanish risible ← rīdeō

Spanish sonreír ← rīdeō

Pronunciation

• /ˈri.zo/, /ˈri.so/^[1]

Forms

riso m (plural risa f)^[1]

Etymology

The word for laughter is inherited from Latin rīsus (“laughter”), the noun formed on the past participle of rīdeō (“to laugh”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The same word is French ris, Occitan ris, Catalan ris, Spanish risa (a feminine), Portuguese riso, Sardinian risu and Romanian râs.^[2][6][7]

The Latin verb has no certain Indo-European cognates.^[8] In Late Latin, from the 4th century in Christian writers, its infinitive was remade after the perfect rīsī, which gave Italian ridere with the stress on the first syllable.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the noun to before 1250 and GRADIT to before 1300, in the sense of laughing, the act of showing mirth with the face and voice.^[9][3][2] Old forms written rixo and rizo are recorded beside riso.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The poets of the 13th and 14th centuries stretched the word to the smile, as in Petrarch's con un riso / da far innamorare un uom selvaggio “with a smile that would make a wild man fall in love”, and through the smile to the mouth itself: in Dante a reader learns of il disiato riso “the longed-for smile” being kissed (Inferno V, 133–134).^[3][9][11] Dante also used it for the brightness of a star, l'affocato riso de la stella, and Leopardi for the cheerful look of nature, di natura il riso.^[3][12]

Two proverbs are common: il riso fa buon sangue “laughter makes good blood”, that is, it is good for the health, and il riso abbonda sulla bocca degli stolti “laughter abounds in the mouths of fools”, a translation of the post-classical Latin adage risus abundat in ore stultorum.^[4][12][9] In medicine riso sardonico is the fixed grin of tetanus, from Latin risus sardonicus.^[13][9][14]

Derivatives include risibile (13th century, from Late Latin risibilis), risolino (15th century) and risata (16th century).^[2][15]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – First record of riso “laughter”.^[9]
• 13th century – Risibile “laughable” is taken from Late Latin.^[2]
• 15th century – The diminutive risolino “little laugh” appears.^[2]
• 16th century – Risata “a burst of laughter” appears.^[2][15]
• 1987 – Risarella “fit of the giggles” is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. laughter, the act of laughing: Il suo riso improvviso ruppe il silenzio della sala.^[3][12][11]
2. A way of laughing: a mocking, bitter or forced laugh.^[3][12][4]
3. The faculty of laughing, seen as proper to human beings.^[3][12][11]
4. (literary) A smile.^[3][12][9]
5. (literary) A joyful, smiling look of something; joy, gladness.^[3][12][9]
6. (literary) brightness, sparkle, splendour: il riso della luna.^[3][12][9]
7. (poetic) The mouth; by extension the face.^[3][9][14]

Word family

• risata
• risolino
• risibile
• risarella

riso² rice

Etymology tree of riso²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin oryza

Italian riso

Pronunciation

• /ˈri.zo/, /ˈri.so/^[1]

Forms

riso m (plural risi)^[1]

Etymology

The word for rice comes from Greek, but its route into Italian is disputed.^[8][2] DELI takes it as a learned word, borrowed from Latin orȳza, from Ancient Greek ὄρυζα (óruza); in Latin and Greek the word named the grain, a rare product kept for medicine and fine cooking, not the plant.^[8][12][1] GRADIT starts from a Latin variant *ŏry̆zum.^[3] Nocentini instead derives the Italian word and the northern plural ⟨risi⟩ from the Byzantine diminutive Ancient Greek ὀρύζιον (orúzion), the source of Modern Greek ρύζι (rýzi), because rice came late to Italy as a crop and the Romance words do not form one inherited family, a sign that the Latin tradition was broken.^[2] DELI also counts this explanation, put forward by Alessio and by H. and R. Kahane, as worth weighing, and quotes Manzelli's view that the name reached Italy twice from Greek: into Latin at the start of the Empire (Horace uses the Latin word), and into the medieval vernaculars.^[8]

The Greek word was itself taken from an eastern Iranian language, where Pashto has a similar word for rice, and Nocentini traces it further back to Sanskrit.^[8][2][3]

Italian passed the word to Old French ris, modern French riz, which passed it on as the English word rice.^[2][16] German Reis comes from Medieval Latin risus instead; Romanian orez comes from Byzantine Greek, and Catalan arròs, Spanish arroz and Portuguese arroz come from Arabic, which also had the word from Iranian.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Italy the grain first appears in Medieval Latin: the chronicler Salimbene, writing in 1281–88, mentions rice cooked with almond milk and cinnamon at a feast given by the king of France.^[8] The Italian word is recorded before 1320 for the grain, and in the Fiore at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries; the plant is named in the Italian translation of Crescenzi, about 1350.^[3][2][8]

Semantic evolution

Rice began to be grown near Pisa in 1468 and around Ferrara in 1475.^[13] The edible grains are recorded again in 1579, and the food vocabulary followed: riso brillato “polished rice” (1839–41) and riso in cagnoni, boiled rice dressed with melted butter and Parmesan (1891).^[8]

Several derivatives come from Lombard usage: risone “unhusked rice”, risotto, risara “rice field”, and the plural risi.^[8][13] Manzoni's Promessi sposi explains that unhusked rice was called risone “here”, in Lombardy.^[8] Risotto is first recorded in 1829, in risotto alla milanese, and risaia “rice field” in 1680.^[8] DELI asks whether risicoltura and its family owe something to French words such as riziculture (1923).^[8]

Timeline

• 1281–1288 – Salimbene mentions rice in Medieval Latin.^[8]
• Before 1320 – First record of Italian riso “rice”.^[3][2]
• c. 1350 – The plant is named in the Italian translation of Crescenzi.^[8]
• 1468 – Rice is first grown near Pisa.^[13]
• 1579 – Riso for the edible grains is recorded again, in G. De' Ricci.^[8]
• 1680 – Risaia “rice field” appears.^[8]
• 1829 – Risotto alla milanese is first recorded.^[8]
• 1860 – Risicoltura “rice growing” appears in a title published at Novara.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The rice plant (Oryza sativa), a cereal grass grown in flooded fields.^[3][12][11]
2. rice, the grain of this plant as food: Stasera facciamo il riso con i piselli.^[3][12][11]
3. carta di riso: rice paper, a thin white paper used for decoration.^[12][3]

Word family

• risaia
• risotto
• risone
• riseria
• risicoltura
• risicoltore
• risicolo
• risiero
• risina