vinoso

Forms

vinoso (feminine vinosa, masculine plural vinosi, feminine plural vinose)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word: it is borrowed from Latin vinosus (“full of wine; fond of wine”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin adjective is formed from vinum (“wine”) with the suffix -ōsus.^[5][1] De Vaan glosses it “immoderately fond of wine”, from Plautus on.^[6]

The Latin word lives on in Romanian vinos, French vineux, Catalan vinós, Spanish vinoso and Portuguese vinhoso.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is recorded before 1320.^[8][4][9] The TLIO's first record is in a Pisan translation of Ovid's Ars amatoria from the first half of the 14th century, with the sense “tasting of wine, good-tasting”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the word was said of grapes fit for making wine, of a person who drinks much wine, and by extension of a deep red colour.^[10] The Crescenzi translation (about 1350) calls a table grape maravigliosamente vinosa.^[11][12] Soderini (before 1597) used it of things like wine in quality, and M. Adriani (before 1604) of what smells or tastes of wine.^[11] Redi's Ditirambo has la grande inondazion vinosa, and Tommaseo noted the sense “too fond of wine” as no longer usual.^[13]

Modern usage has the technical fermentazione vinosa, the taste and colour of young red wines, oranges called vinose, and a horse's coat of grey or white with a few red hairs.^[4][14][15]

Timeline

• Before 1320 – The word is first recorded.^[8][4]
• c. 1350 – The Crescenzi translation uses uva vinosa for grapes rich in juice.^[11]
• Before 1597 – Soderini uses it for “like wine in quality”.^[11]
• Before 1604 – M. Adriani uses it for “tasting of wine”.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to wine: fermentazione vinosa.^[4][9][16]
2. Like wine in look, smell or taste: un succo dal colore vinoso.^[4][9][14]
3. Smelling or tasting of wine: alito vinoso.^[2][15][14]
4. Of wine: full-bodied and genuine.^[4][2]
5. (zootechnics) Of a horse's coat: grey or white with sparse red hairs.^[4][9][16]

Word family

• vinosità

Related words

• vino
• vinaccia
• Latin vinosus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
11. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 889
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse