Italian edit

Etymology edit

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

Pronunciation edit

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

Adjective edit

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

  1. shameful, injurious
    • mid 1300smid 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.
  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 edit

Further reading edit

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

Anagrams edit