ontoso
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Italian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old French honteux (“ashamed; shameful”). By surface analysis, onta (“shame”) + -oso (“-ous, -ful”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
ontoso (feminine ontosa, masculine plural ontosi, feminine plural ontose) (obsolete)
- shameful, injurious
- mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto VII”, in Inferno [Hell][1], lines 31-33; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate][2], 2nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:
- Così tornavan per lo cerchio tetro
da ogne mano a l’opposito punto,
gridandosi anche loro ontoso metro;- Thus they returned along the lurid circle on either hand unto the opposite point, shouting their shameful metre evermore.
- indignant, resentful
- 1343, Giovanni Boccaccio, Amorosa visione [Loving Vision][3], published 1833, Chapter 20, page 83:
- Ontoso tutto lagrimando mise
La mano ad uno stocco ch’avea seco,
Col qual dal corpo l’anima divise.- Resentful, he cryingly grabbed hold of a rapier he had with him, with which he separated the body from the soul.
- ashamed
- 1877, Luigi Capuana, Profili di donne[4], page 54:
- Rizzossi e mi si fece innanzi con un’aria di profonda tristezza, ontosa di aver già troppo capito le mie balorde intenzioni e nello stesso tempo proprio decisa a sdebitarsi con me
- She stood up, and faced me with a look of deep sadness, ashamed as she was of having understood my vile intentions more than enough, and yet at the same time firmly determined to repay me
Related terms[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- ontoso in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana