fresco

fresco¹ fresh, cool

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈfɾes.ku/^[1]
• Rio-de-Janeiro: /ˈfɾeʃ.ku/^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈfɾeʃ.ku/^[1]

Forms

fresco (feminine fresca, masculine plural frescos, feminine plural frescas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for “fresh, cool” is inherited from Vulgar Latin *friscum, written Old Galician-Portuguese fresco in the oldest texts and recorded from the 13th century.^[1][2][3] The Vulgar Latin word was borrowed from Proto-Germanic *friskaz.^[1] Houaiss names the source as Frankish *frisk, and Cunha and the Academia's dictionary simply call it Germanic.^[2][3][4] Corominas and Nocentini call it West Germanic and give its old senses as “new, young, lively, agile, bold”.^[5][6]

The same Germanic word is Galician fresco, Spanish fresco, Catalan fresc, Occitan fresc, French frais and Italian fresco, and also German frisch and English fresh.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A cantiga d'escarnho already has salmon fresco “fresh salmon”.^[7] The Crónica Troiana uses the word for what is recent or newly worn, for horsemen who are fresh and rested, and for a face of bright colour.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that in old Spanish too the word meant mainly “recent”.^[5] Cunha dates the sense “of a temperature between cold and warm” and “green, flourishing” to the 13th century, the noun fresco “air neither hot nor cold” and the derivatives frescor and frescura to the 16th.^[3] Bluteau put “moderately cold” first, with o fresco da manhã “the cool of the morning”, and his book of synonyms adds “recent, new, green, young”.^[9][9]

Morais's dictionary lists fresh water, fresh fish (not salted), wet ink and a fresh face, and its 1813 edition records tomar o fresco “to take the air” and falar fresco, to use indecent words.^[10][11] Figueiredo marks the sense “licentious, suggestive” as popular.^[12] In Brazilian informal speech the word became a noun and adjective for a fussy or squeamish person, a dandy, and, as a slur, an effeminate or homosexual man.^[2][13][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records.^[2][3]
• 16th century – the noun fresco “cool air” and the derivatives frescor and frescura.^[3]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau defines it as moderately cold.^[9]
• 1789 – Morais lists fresh water, fresh fish and wet ink.^[10]
• 1813 – Morais records tomar o fresco and falar fresco.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo marks the sense “licentious” as popular.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. cool, slightly cold; pleasantly mild.^[2][13][1]
2. Well aired, not hot.^[2][13]
3. Giving a feeling of freshness: hálito fresco;^[2][15] (figurative) light, thin (of clothing).^[2][15]
4. Recent, new: notícias frescas; still vivid in the mind.^[2][1]
5. Not yet dry; wet (of paint).^[2][1]
6. fresh: recently made, picked, caught or killed; not stale, not spoiled.^[2][13][1]
7. Not salted, smoked or otherwise preserved.^[2][15]
8. Rested, not yet tired: tropas frescas; healthy, youthful, blooming.^[2][13]
9. (dated) Licentious, risqué.^[2][12]
10. (Brazil, informal) Fussy, squeamish; dandified;^[2][13][1] (derogatory) effeminate.^[2][13][1]

Noun

1. Cool air, a light breeze: tomar um fresco.^[2][4]
2. (Brazil, informal, derogatory) An effeminate or homosexual man; a fussy person.^[2][4][14]

Word family

• fresca
• frescor
• frescura
• fresquidão
• refrescar
• refresco
• frescurento

fresco² fresco painting

Pronunciation

• Brazil: /ˈfɾes.ku/^[1]
• Rio-de-Janeiro: /ˈfɾeʃ.ku/^[1]
• Portugal: /ˈfɾeʃ.ku/^[1]

Forms

fresco m (plural frescos)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the painting is borrowed from Italian fresco, shortened from an Italian phrase meaning “to paint on fresh (plaster)”.^[2][1][4] The Italian word is the adjective “fresh”, of Germanic origin.^[2][6] Houaiss dates it to 1507;^[2][3] Cunha dates the sense “technique of painting” to the 17th century.^[2][3]

Nascentes cites Pacheco and Lameira for the Italian origin and explains the name from the painting done on a wall freshly plastered.^[16] Corominas notes that in Spanish too the pictorial sense came from Italian at the end of the 16th century, first in adverbial phrases (1564).^[17] The form afresco comes from the same Italian phrase.^[18]

Semantic evolution

Morais's 1813 dictionary records pintar a fresco, painting with water colours on a wall not yet dry.^[11] Figueiredo defines the noun both as the kind of painting and as a picture painted so.^[12] Aurélio refers the noun to afresco, and Wiktionary marks fresco in this sense as chiefly Portuguese.^[13][1]

Timeline

• 1507 – first record.^[2]
• 1571 – first record of afresco.^[18]
• 17th century – Cunha's date for the sense “technique of painting”.^[3]
• 1813 – Morais records pintar a fresco.^[11]
• 1899 – Figueiredo defines the technique and the picture.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (painting) fresco, the technique of painting with colours mixed in water on wet plaster; afresco.^[2][4][15]
2. A painting made in this way.^[4][15][1]