colore Italian · revision 38272

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=late 12th century, Proverbia que dicuntur (Venetian)|origins=ine-pro *ḱel-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /koˈlo.re/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''colore''' ''m'' (plural colori)^(Wiktionary)

+ Old forms include [[roa-oit|color]], [[roa-oit|collore]], [[roa-oit|cholore]] and [[roa-oit|culore]].^(TLIO) A few early texts make the word feminine, which the LEI takes for an imitation of French, where the feminine is much older.^(LEI|15, 1000)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|la|color|t=colour, complexion]], from the accusative “colōrem”.^(Nocentini 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Wiktionary) DELI calls it a learned word, but the LEI treats it as inherited, since the noun lives on in every Romance language except Romanian, which probably took it from French.^(DELI 1999)^(LEI|15, 1000) The same word is [[fr|couleur]], [[ca|color]], [[es|color]], [[pt|cor]], [[fur|colôr]], [[dlm|koláwr]] and [[sc|kolóre]].^(Nocentini 2010)^(LEI|15, 1000)

+

+ The early nominative was [[la|colōs]], as in Plautus.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) The ending [[m|la|-or]] came in by analogy with the other cases, where an old /s/ between vowels had become /r/.^(Wiktionary) De Vaan traces the noun to [[itc-pro|*kelōs|t=outside, aspect]] and [[ine-pro|*ḱel-ōs|t=cover, covering]], from the root [[ine-pro|*ḱel-|t=to hide, conceal]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(Wiktionary) The Latin word thus belongs with [[m|la|cēlō|t=to hide]]: colour was seen as what covers and conceals a thing, and Nocentini thinks of the camouflage it gives.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(Devoto 1968) De Vaan and the OLD compare [[goh|hulsa|t=husk, shell]].^(de Vaan 2008)^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian ''Proverbia que dicuntur'', from the last quarter of the 12th century.^(TLIO) GRADIT dates the word before 1237, and DELI's first dated record of the sense “colour”, the impression that reflected light makes on the eye, is in Restoro d'Arezzo's treatise of 1282.^(GRADIT 2003)^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Old Italian already used the word for a pigment or dye, for the colour of the face as a sign of health or feeling, and for the rouge of cosmetics.^(TLIO) Following the Latin of the rhetoricians, ''colore'' was also a figure of speech that adorns a text, and then an appearance put on, a pretext or a false reason.^(TLIO)^(GDLI)

+

+ The sense of a political leaning or opinion is recorded in the Sforza documents of 1477–1478.^(DELI 1999) DEI sees French influence in it, as in “the colour of a newspaper”.^(DEI|1020) The phrase ''di colore'' for a person who is not white is a calque of English ''coloured person'', which reached Italian through the French ''de couleur'' of a translated Walter Scott novel.^(DELI 1999)^(DEI|1020) ''Colore locale'' is the French painters' ''couleur locale'', which Italian took over in the 18th century and which the Romantics turned into a literary term;^(DELI 1999) Berchet tried ''tinte locali'', and in the 1860s D'Azeglio still wrote the French phrase.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ French borrowed the derivative ''colorito'' as ''coloris'' (1615).^(DEI|1020)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Late 12th century – ''Colore'' appears in the Venetian ''Proverbia que dicuntur''.^(TLIO)

+ * Before 1237 – GRADIT's date for the word.^(GRADIT 2003)

+ * 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses it for the colour of things.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1304–1307 – Dante uses it in the ''Convivio''.^(LEI|15, 1000)

+ * 1477–1478 – The sense “political leaning” is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1615 – French ''coloris'' is borrowed from ''colorito''.^(DEI|1020)

+ * 1758 – A translation from French explains ''colori locali'' as a term of painting.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1863–1866 – D'Azeglio still writes ''couleur locale'' in French.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|colour]], the quality of a surface that reflects light in different ways and so gives a particular sensation to the eye: ''Il cielo aveva un colore grigio.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(colloquial)'' A colour other than black and white: ''una camicia di colore''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)

+ # [[m|en|paint]], a [[m|en|pigment]] or dye used for colouring: ''colori a olio''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Gabrielli 2020)

+ # The [[m|en|complexion]] of the face, especially as a sign of health or feeling.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(figurative)'' Appearance, character, tone: ''una storia dal colore di favola''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # Usually in the plural, the colours of a flag or coat of arms, standing for a state, party or team.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(card games)'' A suit of French playing cards, and in [[m|en|poker]] a [[m|en|flush]].^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[coloramento]]

+ * [[colorante]]

+ * [[colorare]]

+ * [[colorazione]]

+ * [[coloreria]]

+ * [[colorificio]]

+ * [[colorimetro]]

+ * [[colorire]]

+ * [[colorismo]]

+ * [[colorista]]

+ * [[coloristico]]

+ * [[colorito]]

+ * [[coloritore]]

+ * [[coloritura]]

+ * [[trascolorare]]

+ * [[decolorare]]

+ * [[scolorire]]

+ * [[scolorito]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[anticolore]]

+ * [[incolore]]

+ * [[multicolore]]

+ * [[celare]]

+ * [[la|color]]

+ * [[fr|couleur]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Set phrases include ''a colori'' (in colour, not black and white), ''di colore'' (not white, of a person), ''colore locale'' and ''dirne di tutti i colori'', to pour out every kind of insult.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Treccani 2011) DEI lists a minor ''colore'', a Tuscan name of a grape that gives the wine its colour.^(DEI|1020)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}