ontoso

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Italian

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
    • 1300s–1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto VII”, in Inferno [Hell]‎, lines 31-33; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate]‎, 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.
  2. indignant, resentful
    • 1343, Giovanni Boccaccio, Amorosa visione [Loving Vision]‎, 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, 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

Further reading

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

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