Etymologically
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buono

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Pronunciation

Forms

buono (feminine buona, masculine plural buoni, feminine plural buone, superlative buonissimo, diminutive (informal) bonìno or buonìno or (archaic) bonétto, augmentative (informal) bonóne)[1] Before a vowel and most consonants the masculine singular is shortened to buon (buon amico, buon lavoro); the feminine is elided to buon’ before a vowel.[2] The popular and Roman form is bono.[3][4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bonus (“good”).[5][6][7][1] It continues in the whole Romance area: French bon, Occitan bon, Catalan bo, Spanish bueno, Portuguese bom, Sardinian bónu, Friulian bon and Romanian bun.[8][6][9] The short stressed /o/ of Latin became the Tuscan diphthong /wɔ/, written ⟨uo⟩; the form ⟨bono⟩ reflects a later, 18th-century Florentine development that the literary language did not take up.[10] South of a line from Gaeta to Teramo the adjective, declined as usual, also does the work of the adverb bene.[8][11]

Old Latin wrote the word duenos (in the Duenos inscription) and duonus, from Proto-Italic *dweno-; the adverb bene (“well”) and the diminutive bellus (“pretty”) are formed on it.[12][1][11] Its further origin is unsolved: DELI and Nocentini connect it with a Sanskrit word for “homage”, and the DEI and Nocentini with Ancient Greek δύναμαι (dúnamai, “I am able”), but de Vaan finds none of the proposed roots convincing.[5][6][11][12] The Romance languages kept the Latin comparative melior but lost the inherited superlative optimus.[11]

The noun ⟨buono⟩ “voucher” is the adjective used as a noun after French bon du Trésor (“Treasury bond”), from a phrase of the type “good for …”;[5][6][7][13] DELI dates the French model to 1755 and Nocentini to 1773, and Nocentini and GRADIT give it a numbered entry of its own.[5][6][7][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the phrase bonu pi(n)gnu “a valid pledge” in a Fabriano charter of 1186.[5] The moral sense, “in keeping with what is right”, is in Guittone d'Arezzo before 1294: Ahi, lasso, che li boni e li malvagi / omini tutti hanno preso acordanza (“alas, good and wicked men have all agreed”).[5][7][14]

Semantic evolution

Most of the modern senses are already in the 14th century: “kind, courteous” and “useful, favourable” in Dante, “gentle, quiet” and “pleasant” in Boccaccio.[5] Used as a noun, il buono “what is good” goes back to Guittone and “a good person” to Iacopo da Léona;[5] il buono for fine weather is in Giusti in 1844.[5]

The adjective formed many greetings and compounds: buondì, buongiorno and buonanotte are in Boccaccio, buonasera in 1556, buongusto before 1497 and buonsenso in 1611;[5][6] buonsenso, di buon grado and the voucher sense follow French models.[5][6] Buono “voucher, coupon” is recorded in 1796 in a collection of public notices, and buono del tesoro “Treasury bond” in 1851.[5]

English slang took bona “good” into Polari, from Italian or Spanish.[15]

Timeline

  • 1186 – Bonu pi(n)gnu “a valid pledge” in a Fabriano charter.[5]
  • Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses bono in the moral sense.[5][7]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses buonanotte and buondì.[5]
  • 1556 – Buonasera is recorded.[5]
  • 1611 – Paolo Sarpi uses buonsenso.[5]
  • 1796 – The noun ⟨buono⟩ “voucher” is recorded.[5]
  • 1851 – Buono del tesoro is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. good in the moral sense, upright: ha sempre agito con buone intenzioni.[7][10][2]
  2. Kind-hearted, generous: è una persona buona.[7][3]
  3. Calm, quiet, well-behaved, of children and animals: il cane è stato buono tutto il viaggio.[7][10]
  4. Kind, friendly: è sempre stata buona con i vicini.[7][3]
  5. Of good quality, fine: un buon olio.[7][1]
  6. Kept for special occasions: il servizio di piatti buono.[7]
  7. Respected: il buon nome della ditta.[7]
  8. Able, skilled at something: un buon falegname.[7][10]
  9. Valid, still usable: la garanzia è ancora buona.[10][1]
  10. tasty: questa torta è buonissima.[1][2]
  11. Of weather or the sea, fine, calm.[1][13]

Noun

  1. Good person; in films and stories, the good guy: i buoni e i cattivi.[5][1]
  2. voucher, coupon: a document entitling the holder to goods, a service or money: un buono sconto.[7][3]
  3. (finance) Bond: buono del tesoro, Treasury bond.[5][1][13]

Word family

  • buonanotte
  • buonasera
  • buongiorno
  • buondì
  • buonsenso
  • buonumore
  • buonafede
  • buonanima
  • buoncostume
  • buongusto
  • buongustaio
  • buontempone
  • bonaccione
  • imbonire
  • rabbonire

Usage notes

The comparative is più buono or migliore and the superlative buonissimo or ottimo.[2] The full form is used before ⟨s⟩ plus consonant, ⟨z⟩, ⟨gn⟩ and ⟨ps⟩ (buono studente), though buon is common there too in speech.[2] Set phrases include alla buona (simply, informally), con le buone (gently), a buon mercato (cheap) and buono a nulla (good-for-nothing).[7][1][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 6, 917
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  11. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
  12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  13. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 442
  15. ^ Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it