rosso

Italian

Etymology

From Latin russus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ-. Cognate with Latin rosa.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈros.so/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -osso
• Hyphenation: rós‧so

Adjective

rosso (feminine rossa, masculine plural rossi, feminine plural rosse, diminutive rossétto m or rossétta f or rossìno m or rossìna f, pejorative rossàccio)

1. red
2. ginger, red (of hair)
   • c. 1795, Vincenzo Monti, Opere inedite e rare: di Vincenzo Monti‎, by Urbano Lampredi, published 1843, page 126:

     Costui, rosso di pel, Foscolo è detto

     He, of red hair, is called Foscolo

3. (figurative) incandescent, red hot
   • mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto VIII”, in Inferno [Hell]‎, lines 73–75; republished as Giorgio Petrocchi, editor, La Commedia secondo l'antica vulgata [The Commedia according to the ancient vulgate]‎, 2^nd revised edition, Florence: publ. Le Lettere, 1994:

     […] Ed ei mi disse: «Il foco etterno ¶ ch'entro l'affoca le dimostra rosse, ¶ come tu vedi in questo basso inferno».

     And he to me: "The fire eternal that kindles them within makes them look red, as thou beholdest in this nether Hell".

Noun

rosso m (plural rossi)

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:

rosso

Wikipedia ^it

1. red (any of a range of colours/colors)
   • 1321, Dante Alighieri, La divina commedia: Inferno [The Divine Comedy: Hell], 12th edition (paperback), Le Monnier, published 1994, Canto X, page 158, lines 85–87:

     Ond' io a lui: «Lo strazio e 'l grande scempio ¶ che fece l'Arbia colorata in rosso, ¶ tal orazion fa far nel nostro tempio».

     Whence I to him: "The slaughter and great carnage ¶ which have with crimson stained the Arbia, cause ¶ such orisons in our temple to be made."

2. any red pigment
3. (metonymically, sometimes derogatory) a Socialist or Communist
4. (heraldry) gules

Derived terms

Related terms

• rubro
• rufo

See also

Anagrams

• sorso