fosco

From Old Galician-Portuguese fosco, from Latin fuscus (compare Spanish hosco, Portuguese fosco, Catalan fosc, Old French fusque). fusco is a doublet.

fosco (feminine fosca, masculine plural foscos, feminine plural foscas)

1. not shiny; having a matte finish or no particular luster

From Latin fuscus (“dark, dim”).^[1] Compare Spanish hosco, Portuguese fosco, fusco, Catalan fosc, Old French fusque.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfos.ko/
• Rhymes: -osko
• Hyphenation: fó‧sco

• Audio:

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fosco (feminine fosca, masculine plural foschi, feminine plural fosche)

1. dark, murky, dusky

   Antonyms: chiaro, luminoso

   • 1300s–1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto XIII”, in Inferno [Hell], lines 4–6; 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:

     Non fronda verde, ma di color fosco; / non rami schietti, ma nodosi e ’nvolti; / non pomi v’eran, ma stecchi con tòsco.

     Not green foliage green, but of a dusky color; not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled; there were not apple-trees, but thorns with poison.

2. (weather) dull, overcast

   Synonyms: nebbioso, brumoso

3. (figurative) gloomy; sad

   dipingere a tinte fosche

   to paint a gloomy picture

   (literally, “to paint in dark colors”)

• foscamente
• foschia

• sfoco, sfocò

From Old Galician-Portuguese fosco, from Latin fuscus (compare Spanish hosco, Catalan fosc, Old French fusque). Doublet of fusco.

fosco (feminine fosca, masculine plural foscos, feminine plural foscas)

1. matte, not shiny (having a matte finish or no particular luster)

• “fosco”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “fosco”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• focos

• IPA^(key): /ˈfosko/ [ˈfos.ko]
• Rhymes: -osko
• Syllabification: fos‧co

fosco (feminine fosca, masculine plural foscos, feminine plural foscas)

1. synonym of hosco

• “fosco”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025