Al fresco

The term is sometimes hyphenated; sometimes written as ‘alfresco’.

I occasionally get irate correspondence along the lines of “You ignorant ***, it means ‘in jail’. Can’t you speak Italian?”. Well, no, I can’t speak Italian – but I can speak English. Whatever the phrase means in Italian it has been adopted into English with the above meanings. Almost always, it is used in relation to dining alfresco, that is, eating outdoors.

Both meanings have been in use in English since at least the late 18th century; for example, in Mrs. Eliza Haywood’s History of Jemmy and Jenny Jessamy, 1753:

“It was good for her ladyship’s health to be thus alfresco.”

The earliest use of alfresco to describe a type of painting is in Geoffrey Smith’s translation of The laboratory; or, School of arts, 1717::

“Christopher Swartz, died 1594. He got himself re-
nowned by painting al Fresco.”

Frescos are those paintings that are painted on walls and ceilings, in plaster that is not quite dry, so that the paint is absorbed into the surface layer. Probably the most celebrated example is Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper.