fresco
noun
Did you know?
If the word fresco brings to mind images of eating an alfresco meal—that is, a meal eaten outside “in the fresh air”—your gut is on the right track: fresco is Italian for “fresh,” and the culinary usage is relatively common in English. But what puts the “fresh” in the English fresco is not so appetizing: the name of this art form refers to the fresh plaster used in it. Fresco is an ancient art, used as early as the Minoan civilization on Crete, but it reached the height of its popularity during the Italian Renaissance of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Fresco comes in two types: in fresco secco (“dry fresco”), a dry wall is soaked in limewater, and lime-resistant pigments are then applied; in buon fresco (“good fresco”; buon fresco is also called “true” fresco), used by Michelangelo in his 16th century Sistine Chapel frescos, pigments are fused directly with wet plaster.
Did you know?
Fresco and the Art World
The Italian word fresco means “fresh” and comes from a Germanic word akin to the source of English fresh. In the Renaissance, pittura a fresco, meaning “painting freshly,” referred to paint applied while the plaster on the wall was still wet, as opposed to pittura a secco “painting dryly,” in which paint is applied when the plaster was dry. In English, fresco appears earliest as part of the phrase in fresco; it does not appear as a noun referring to a painting until 1670. A different sense of Italian fresco, meaning “fresh air,” appears in the phrase al fresco “outdoors,” borrowed into English as alfresco and used particularly in reference to dining outdoors.
Examples of fresco in a Sentence
Lucrezia Worthington, Condé Nast Traveler, 30 Sep. 2024
In the 1920s and 1930s, a group of American and French archaeologists, led by Yale University and the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, excavated the area where thousands of artifacts, including frescoes, were unearthed.
—Ashlyn Messier, Fox News, 16 Sep. 2024
An ancient fresco of flying goddesses represented the interests of ruling classes and had to be criticized, perhaps even destroyed.
—Ian Johnson, The New Yorker, 18 Aug. 2024
Then, back in April, archaeologists came across a collection of frescoes during an excavation effort in Pompeii.
—Abby Montanez, Robb Report, 8 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for fresco 
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fresco.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near fresco
Cite this Entry
“Fresco.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fresco. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
fresco
noun
Italian, from fresco "fresh"
Share