dì

Forms

dì m (invariable)^[1] The older and literary form is die;^[2][3][4] Old Italian also had a feminine Old Italian dia.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin diēs (“day”), through its accusative, and is shortened from the older die.^[5][6][2][1] Beside it the LEI posits a by-form Vulgar Latin *dia, like Latin barbaria beside barbaries; it is rare in Italo-Romance but the only form in Catalan dia, Spanish día, Portuguese dia and Aromanian dzuia.^[4] The Latin noun itself gave Romanian zi, Dalmatian dai, Friulian dì, Sardinian die and Old French di, kept in French midi.^[4][6][7]

The Latin noun was back-formed from its accusative, from Proto-Italic *djēm, the accusative of the word for “sky”, from Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws (“heaven, sky”), the source of Latin Iuppiter too.^[1][8] Nocentini traces it to a root Proto-Indo-European *dei- (“to shine”) and compares Old Irish día, Welsh dydd, Old Armenian տիւ (tiw) and, with a nasal suffix, Lithuanian dienà.^[6][1] English day is not related.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Florentine bankers' account book of 1211, with the sense “day”.^[5][6][4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian dì was the ordinary word for “day” and also meant daylight and splendour; it was sometimes feminine.^[9][10] Brunetto Latini defines it as the time the sun is above the earth.^[11] Across much of Italy, and in the standard language, it came into competition with giorno, from Latin diurnum, which has largely replaced it.^[4][9]

Today the word is literary, but it survives in fixed uses: in dates (a dì or addì 15 maggio), in prescriptions (tre volte al dì), in greetings (buondì), in mezzodì, in the rhyme trenta dì conta novembre and in the names of the weekdays, lunedì to venerdì.^[3][2][12] In astronomy it is the time from sunrise to sunset, as against notte.^[3][1]

Timeline

• 1211 – Dì is recorded in a Florentine bankers' account book.^[5][6]
• 1292–1293 – Dante uses dì in the Vita Nuova.^[4]
• 1954 – Camillo Sbarbaro still uses the word.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) day; used chiefly in dates and set phrases: il dì di Natale, a dì 3 aprile.^[10][13][14]
2. (literary) daylight; figuratively, splendour.^[10][14]
3. (chiefly plural) A period of time, a person's days.^[10]
4. (astronomy) daytime, from sunrise to sunset.^[3][1]

Word family

• buondì
• mezzodì
• oggidì
• addì
• tuttodì
• diana

Related words

• giorno
• diurno
• diaria
• lunedì
• Latin diēs

Usage notes

Common phrases are notte e dì “night and day”, dì per dì “day by day”, conciare qualcuno per il dì delle feste “to give someone a good beating”, and the proverb il buon dì si vede dal mattino, a good beginning shows how things will go.^{[10][14][13][3]}

The second person singular imperative of dire is written di’ and, less often, dì, a spelling Zingarelli calls disused.^[14][3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ 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. 20, 332
5. ^ a b c 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1272
10. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org
13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli