veltro

From Old French veltre.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛl.tro/
• Rhymes: -ɛltro
• Hyphenation: vèl‧tro

veltro m (plural veltri, feminine veltra) (literary)

1. greyhound (male)
   • mid 1300s–mid 1310s, Dante Alighieri, “Canto I”, in Inferno [Hell]‎, lines 100–102; 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:

     Molti son li animali a cui s’ammoglia,
     e più saranno ancora, infin che ’l veltro
     verrà, che la farà morir con doglia.

     Many are the animals with which she [the Wolf] mates, and many more there will be, until the greyhound comes, who will make her die in pain.

   • 1887, Giosuè Carducci, “La leggenda di Teodorico [The Legend of Theodoric]”, in Rime nuove [New Rhymes]‎, collected in Poesie, Nicola Zanichelli, published 1906, Book 6, page 696, lines 45–46:

     Ma i suoi veltri ebber timore
     E si misero a guair

     But his greyhounds got scared, and started whining

• cane