vezzoso

Forms

vezzoso (feminine vezzosa, masculine plural vezzosi, feminine plural vezzose)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian vezzo + -oso.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} Wiktionary also allows a direct origin in Latin vitiōsus (“faulty; vicious”), whose learned doublet is vizioso.^[1][9]

The noun vezzo is the popular outcome of vitium (“fault, defect; vice”), beside the learned vizio.^[2][3] In Italian it lost the negative sense of the Latin and came to mean “habit”, as in avvezzare “to accustom”, and in the plural “caresses, coaxing ways”, the sense behind vezzeggiare and this adjective.^[3][2] Elsewhere in Romance the derivatives kept the bad sense: Meyer-Lübke cites Old Occitan vezos (“faulty, of bad inclination”).^[10] Nocentini finds no sure comparisons for the Latin noun outside Latin.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Dante (before 1321), in the sense “full of charms, endowed with beauty and grace”.^[2] In his rhymes Dante writes of lo spirito vezzoso della vita, and Cino da Pistoia uses the word in the sonnet Saper vorrei (before 1337).^[11][2]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio uses it both for what pleases by its grace (1348–53) and for affected, mincing ways (1362–64).^[2] In the Decameron he addresses o vezzose donne and describes two kids as la più vezzosa thing in the world.^[12][8] A 14th-century translation of Seneca has the noun, someone who puts on graceful and coquettish airs.^[2] Tommaseo also records an obsolete sense “given to luxury”, as in Boccaccio's commentary on Dante, where the Cerchi are ricchi e morbidi e vezzosi.^[12] GRADIT and Zingarelli list a sense “spoiled”.^[4][7]

The word is used above all of children and young women, but also of animals, flowers and fine objects: Aretino writes of a necklace, la più vezzosa e la più vaga collana.^[4][8][11] In German vezzoso has been a musical direction since 1879.^[13]

Timeline

• Before 1321 – Dante uses the word.^[2]
• Before 1337 – Cino da Pistoia uses it in the sonnet Saper vorrei.^[2]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for what pleases by its grace.^[2]
• 1362–1364 – Boccaccio uses it in the sense “affected”.^[2]
• 14th century – The noun is recorded in a translation of Seneca.^[2]
• 1879 – German records vezzoso as a musical term.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. charming, graceful, pretty, especially of children and young women: La sposa aveva un sorriso vezzoso.^{[4][5][6][7][8][1]}
2. affected, mincing, too sweet in manner: un tono vezzoso e stucchevole.^{[4][5][6][7][1]}
3. (obsolete) spoiled, overbearing.^[4][7]

Noun

1. An affected person, someone who puts on airs: fare il vezzoso, fare la vezzosa.^{[5][6][7][14][15]}

Word family

• vezzosamente
• vezzosità
• vezzosetto

Related words

• vezzo
• vizioso
• vizio
• vezzeggiare
• Latin vitiosus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 834
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli