Etymologically
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domani

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Pronunciation

Forms

domani (adverb; also an invariable masculine noun)[1][2] Older forms are Old Italian dimane and Old Italian domane, and the literary Old Italian dimani.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin dē māne (“in the morning”), a phrase of dē (“from”) and māne (“morning; early”).[3][5][2][1] The Latin phrase was censured by grammarians: Servius wrote that one should not say ⟨de mane⟩, though most people did.[6] It is continued in French demain, Occitan deman, Catalan demà, Friulian doman and Romansh damaun.[5][6][7] The meaning moved from “in the morning” to “the next morning” and then “the next day”, as did German morgen.[5] Elsewhere Romanian mâine continues bare māne, Spanish mañana and Portuguese manhã a phrase with an adjective formed from it, while Latin crās (“tomorrow”) survives in southern Italy as ⟨crai⟩ and in Sardinian cras.[5][3]

The Latin noun māne is a form of the old adjective mānis (“good”), so that it first meant “at the good hour”.[3][8] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *meh₂- (“to ripen, mature”).[1]

The ⟨o⟩ of the first syllable is the rounding of a pretonic ⟨e⟩ before a labial, as in domandare; the final ⟨-i⟩, which replaced ⟨-e⟩ in the 15th century, follows ieri and oggi.[3][5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur, of the late 12th century, for “tomorrow morning”.[10] The noun “the next day” (la dimane) is in the Storie de Troia e de Roma of 1252–1258, and the adverb in an Italian Pamphilus of about 1250: “doman tu le diras a mi” (tomorrow you will tell them to me).[3][10] GRADIT and Nocentini date the word to about 1274.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian la dimane could also mean simply “the morning”, and the word was even used for the east.[10][7] The sense “the future”, often set against oggi, is early: Patecchio advises doing a favour today, “forsi no g'è-l doman” (perhaps there is no tomorrow).[10] DELI records the forms dimane in Folgore da San Gimignano at the end of the 13th century, domane in Cecco Angiolieri before 1313, and domani in Machiavelli before 1527.[3]

Domattina “tomorrow morning”, from domani mattina with one ma dropped, is in the Novellino;[3][5] indomani dates from the 13th century, doman l'altro from 1691 and dopodomani from the 18th century.[3][5] Ironic sì, domani! means “never”.[2][9]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – The Proverbia que dicuntur use the word for the next morning.[10]
  • c. 1250 – An Italian Pamphilus uses doman “tomorrow”.[10]
  • 1252–1258 – The Storie de Troia e de Roma use la dimane “the next day”.[3]
  • Late 13th century – Folgore da San Gimignano uses dimane.[3]
  • Before 1527 – Machiavelli uses the form domani.[3]
  • 1691 – Doman l'altro is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. tomorrow, on the day after today: Domani parto per Torino.[2][4][9]
  2. In the near or indefinite future, often set against oggi: Domani chissà dove saremo.[2][4][9]
  3. (ironic) Never: Ti restituisce i soldi? Sì, domani![2][9]

Noun

  1. The next day: Il domani della festa erano tutti stanchi.[9][1]
  2. The future: Pensa al tuo domani.[2][4][9]

Word family

  • domattina
  • dopodomani
  • indomani
  • posdomani

Usage notes

Proverbs set domani against oggi: meglio un uovo oggi che una gallina domani “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”, and oggi a me, domani a te.[2][4] A domani is a common way of saying goodbye.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 944
  7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1377
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  11. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana