uggioso

Forms

uggioso (feminine uggiosa, masculine plural uggiosi, feminine plural uggiose)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian uggia + -oso, the noun for harmful shade and for boredom with the adjective suffix.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} An older view, put forward by Canello in 1878, saw the adjective as the popular outcome of Latin odiōsus (“hateful”), beside the learned doublet odioso, and took the noun back to the Latin neuter plural ōdia.^[7] Devoto also derives it from Vulgar Latin *odjosus, with /o/ raised to /u/ before the stress and ⟨dj⟩ giving ⟨gg⟩ as in moggio from modius.^[8] Wiktionary gives both explanations.^[1]

The origin of the noun itself is disputed.^[7][9] Castellani took it from Vulgar Latin *ūdia (“dampness, coolness”), from ūdus (“wet”), since the sense “shade” seems the older one and “shade” leads easily to “annoyance”, but not the other way round.^[7][9] DELI finds this more convincing than Hall's blend of ūrō (“to burn”) with the stem of “hate”.^[7] Nocentini prefers to derive it from Old Italian aduggiare (“to oppress; to harm with shade”), from Vulgar Latin *adodiāre, from the same Latin noun, in the sense “annoyance”, with the prefix ad-.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the sermons of Giordano da Pisa, before 1311, in the sense “shady and damp”, said of a place.^[7] Giordano calls the walnut a very shady tree that takes the yield of the land around it.^[10][11] A Florentine translation of 1363 has the form ugiosa in the sense “deserving to be lamented”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense, a place in the shade and therefore cool and damp, stayed in agricultural writing: Davanzati says the plum tree likes a fat, low, cool, damp and uggioso place.^[10][11] Manzoni still uses it in I promessi sposi, where the Innominato's castle overlooks a narrow uggiosa valley.^[10][5]

The figurative sense followed the noun uggia, which DELI records as “annoyance” before 1363 and as “boredom” only in 1863.^[7] Manzoni uses it in 1825–1827 for don Abbondio, listless in the middle of the celebrations, and Giusti uses the word for what causes uggia before 1850, the date most dictionaries give for this sense.^[7][2][3] Tommaseo records it of people who feel annoyed and of people or things that put others in a bad mood, and quotes the Tuscan proverb Se maggio è rugginoso, l'uomo è uggioso, a rusty May foretelling a poor harvest.^[11] Today it is above all the word for dull, grey weather: tempo uggioso, giornata uggiosa.^[5][6]

Timeline

• Before 1311 – Giordano da Pisa uses uggioso for a shady, damp place.^[7]
• 1363 – A Florentine translation has ugiosa “deserving to be lamented”.^[12]
• 1825–1827 – Manzoni uses uggioso for the listless don Abbondio.^[7]
• Before 1850 – Giuseppe Giusti uses it for what causes boredom or annoyance.^[7]
• 1879 – Tommaseo–Bellini records the noun uggiosità as a word in current use.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (figurative) Causing boredom mixed with a vague unease; dreary, tedious, of weather, days or talk: Che domenica uggiosa!^[2][5][4][3]
2. (figurative) tiresome, irritating, of a person or a noise.^[2][5][6]
3. (literary) Feeling bored or annoyed, in a bad mood: Quel lavoro lo lasciava uggioso e svogliato.^[6][5][13]
4. (literary, rare) shady and damp, of a place.^[2][5][3][4]

Noun

1. A tiresome, boring person.^{[2][5][3][13]}

Word family

• uggiosità
• uggiosamente

Related words

• uggia
• aduggiare

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ 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. 21, 504
11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli