Etymologically
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canzone

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Pronunciation

  • /kanˈt͡so.ne/[1]

Forms

canzone f (plural canzoni)[1] The old variant canzona arose by analogy with feminines in -a.[2][3] Old forms include Old Italian cançon, Old Italian canson and the Sicilian canzuni.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cantiō (“singing, song”) (accusative “cantiōnem”), a noun of action from canō (“to sing”) and -tiō.[5][6][7][1] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *keh₂n- (“to sing”).[1] In Latin, from Plautus on, the noun meant above all the modulation of the human voice, and secondarily the sound of instruments;[2] Italian developed the technical musical and literary sense from the start, which shows how closely lyric poetry was bound to music.[2]

The word survives throughout Romance except Romanian: French chanson, Occitan cansó, Catalan cançó, Spanish canción, Portuguese canção, Friulian chançon and Romansh chanzun.[2][6][8] Nocentini considers the Spanish word a learned transmission.[6] The regular form “canzone” continues the accusative, and “canzona” is formed like other feminines in “-a” that continue nouns of the third declension.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Frotula of Gerardo Patecchio, a Cremonese poem of the first half of the 13th century, in the sense “poem”.[4][5][7] The sense “lyric meant to be sung with music” follows at the end of the century in Giacomino da Verona.[5]

Semantic evolution

For the poets of the 13th and 14th centuries the canzone was the highest lyric form, a series of stanzas closed by a shorter congedo;[2][4] Dante's De vulgari eloquentia calls cantiones the noblest of poems.[2][4] Dante also calls each of the three parts of the Commedia a canzone.[4] Petrarch's canzoni became the model for later poets, and Leopardi freed the stanzas from a fixed pattern (canzone libera).[3][9]

The figurative sense “a tiresome thing said over and over again” is in Giovan Maria Cecchi before 1587.[5] From mettere in canzone “to make fun of” (Boccaccio) came the verb canzonare “to tease”, recorded in Lorenzo de' Medici before 1492.[10][5] Today the main sense is a song of popular or light music, as in the Festival della canzone italiana.[7][11]

English borrowed canzone and canzon in 1590 for the lyric form, and later canzona for its musical setting.[12][13] French has canzone as a musical term from the 15th century, and German Kanzone from 1732.[12]

Timeline

  • Early 13th century – Patecchio's Frotula uses canzone for a poem.[4][5]
  • Late 13th century – Giacomino da Verona uses it for a song set to music.[5]
  • 1292–1293 – Dante's Vita nuova uses it for the stanza poem.[2]
  • 1470 – Canzoniere is recorded.[6]
  • Before 1492 – Lorenzo de' Medici uses canzonare.[5]
  • Before 1587 – Cecchi uses canzone for something repeated tiresomely.[5]
  • 1590 – English canzone is recorded.[12][13]
  • 1732 – German Canzone is recorded.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A song, a short piece for voice with an easy melody: Alla radio passano sempre la stessa canzone.[7][11][14][1]
  2. (figurative) A tiresome repetition, the same old story: Ogni sera la stessa canzone: non ha fame.[7][9][14]
  3. (literature) The canzone, a lyric poem of several stanzas of hendecasyllables and seven-syllable lines with a shorter congedo.[7][3][15]
  4. (music) A polyphonic vocal or instrumental composition of the 14th–16th centuries.[11][12]

Word family

  • canzonare
  • canzonatore
  • canzonatorio
  • canzonatura
  • canzonetta
  • canzonettista
  • canzoniere
  • scanzonato

Usage notes

Canzone di gesta translates the French chanson de geste, the medieval epic.[11][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 10, 1521
  3. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  9. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana