cena

Forms

cena f (plural cene)^[1] Old northern texts have Old Italian zena and cenna.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cēna (“the main meal of the day”).^{[4][5][6][1][3]} In classical Rome it was the main meal, taken after work in the afternoon; in late antiquity it became the evening meal, as Festus explains.^[3][7] The word lives on in almost all the Romance languages: Romanian cină, Dalmatian caina, Friulian cène, Romansh tscheina, Occitan cena, Spanish cena, Portuguese ceia and Sardinian chena.^[3][5][8] DEI notes that it has disappeared from southern Italy, together with the word for lunch.^[8]

The Latin noun had an older form Latin cesna, recorded by Festus, and corresponds to Oscan kersnu (“meal”) and Umbrian śesna (“meal”).^[9][1][8] It goes back to Proto-Italic *kertsnā, usually explained as Proto-Indo-European *kért-s-nh₂ (“portion”) from a root Proto-Indo-European *(s)kert- (“to cut”), so that a meal was first a “cut portion”.^{[9][1][5][10]} De Vaan finds this development unproblematic, while Schrijver prefers a link with Latin Cerēs, the goddess of grain.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cremonese poet Gerardo Patecchio, in his Frotula: et a lontano albergo andare ad cena (“and to go to supper at a distant inn”).^[2][11] DELI and GRADIT place it in the 12th century, the TLIO and the LEI at the beginning of the 13th.^[4][6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning the word meant the meal, the food and the time of day at which it is eaten.^[2][6] In Christian use it named the Last Supper of Jesus and the Apostles, and in Old Italian also the feast of Maundy Thursday.^[2][3] Figuratively it could stand for the end of a day or of a life: Petrarch has una terribil cena for the death of Leonidas' men.^[2][12]

The verb cenare appears in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century, and cenacolo, the room of the Last Supper, in Cavalca before 1342.^[4] Cenacolo took the sense “literary circle” from French cénacle in the 19th century, and cenone, the large Christmas Eve supper, is recorded in 1865.^[4][5]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Gerardo Patecchio uses cena.^[2]
• Late 13th century – Cenare appears in the Novellino.^[4]
• 1336–1338 – Boccaccio uses cena in the Filocolo.^[3]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses cenacolo.^[4]
• 1847 – Giusti uses cenacolo for a circle of writers.^[4]
• 1865 – Cenone is recorded.^[4][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. dinner, supper, the evening meal: Stasera siamo a cena dai nonni.^[6][7][10]
2. The food eaten at this meal: Ho preparato una cena leggera.^[6][7][13]
3. The time of the evening meal: Ci sentiamo dopo cena.^[6][13]
4. (religion) The Last Supper (l'Ultima Cena), and a painting of it, Santa Cena, Communion in some Protestant churches.^[7][10][13]
5. (history) The main meal of the ancient Romans, begun in the late afternoon.^[7][14]

Word family

• cenare
• cenacolo
• cenone
• cenetta
• dopocena

Related words

• Latin cēna

Usage notes

The proverb chi va a letto senza cena tutta notte si dimena says that whoever goes to bed without supper tosses all night.^[15] Non mettere insieme il pranzo con la cena means to earn barely enough to live.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 13, 802
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 848
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
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