oscuro

Borrowed from Spanish oscuro (“dark”). Doublet of obscure.

oscuro (plural oscuros)

1. A cigar made with very dark tobacco.

Inherited from Spanish oscuro (“dark”).

• IPA^(key): /osˈkuɾo/, [osˈku.ɾo]
• Hyphenation: os‧cu‧ro

oscuro

1. alternative form of escuro

• IPA^(key): /osˈku.ro/
• Rhymes: -uro
• Hyphenation: os‧cù‧ro

From Latin obscūrus.

oscuro (feminine oscura, masculine plural oscuri, feminine plural oscure, diminutive oscurétto)

1. dark
   • 1472, Dante Alighieri, Comedìa (Divine Comedy), Inferno, Canto I, 1-3:

     Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
     mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
     ché la diritta via era smarrita

     Midway upon the journey of our life
     I found myself within a forest dark,
     ⁠For the straightforward pathway had been lost (Translation: Longfellow (1867))

2. obscure
3. gloomy, sombre
4. humble

• oscuramente
• scuro

• oscurare
• oscurità

oscuro m (plural oscuri)

1. darkness

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

oscuro

1. first-person singular present indicative of oscurare

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

• escuro (obsolete)
• obscuro

Inherited from Old Spanish escuro, with influence from its etymon Latin obscūrus during the Golden Age.^[1]

Cognate with English obscure.

• IPA^(key): /osˈkuɾo/ [osˈku.ɾo]

• Audio (Colombia); [ohˈku.ɾo]:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uɾo
• Syllabification: os‧cu‧ro

oscuro (feminine oscura, masculine plural oscuros, feminine plural oscuras, superlative oscurísimo)

1. dark (lacking light)
2. (of color) dark (deep in hue)

   azul oscuro ― dark blue

3. obscure, unclear
4. incomprehensible

   Synonym: incomprensible

5. suspicious

   Synonym: sospechoso

• “oscuro”, 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