ontoso

Italian

FWOTD – 26 August 2015

Etymology

From Old French honteux (“ashamed; shameful”). By surface analysis, onta (“shame”) +‎ -oso (“-ous, -ful”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /onˈto.zo/
• Rhymes: -ozo
• Hyphenation: on‧tó‧so

Adjective

ontoso (feminine ontosa, masculine plural ontosi, feminine plural ontose) (obsolete)

1. 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], 2^nd 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.

2. 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.

3. 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

• onta

Further reading

• ontoso in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• notoso