Etymologically
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festeggiare

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Pronunciation

  • /fes.tedˈd͡ʒa.re/[1]

Forms

festeggiare (first-person singular present festéggio, first-person singular past historic festeggiài, past participle festeggiàto, auxiliary avére)[1] Old forms include festegiare and festigiare.[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Italian festa + -eggiare, according to DELI, GRADIT and Zingarelli.[4][5][6] Wiktionary instead takes it from a Vulgar Latin *festizāre, from Latin festum (“feast, holiday”) with a verb-forming suffix.[1] Tommaseo compared Old French festoier.[7] The Latin noun is the noun use of the adjective festus (“festive”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Milanese poems of Bonvesin de la Riva, in the late 13th century.[3] DELI's earliest dates are the early 14th century for “to welcome and honour someone with festivity” (the Italian Valerius Maximus) and before 1342 for “to celebrate a feast” (Domenico Cavalca).[4]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the verb meant to honour with public celebrations, especially a religious feast or a deity, to rejoice in someone's honour, and to amuse oneself.[3] Cavalca writes of festeggiare il giorno del sabato, keeping the Sabbath.[7] The old intransitive sense “to amuse oneself, to make merry” is now marked as archaic or literary,[6][8] while modern usage celebrates birthdays, anniversaries and victories, or simply “celebrates” without an object.[5][9] In literary prose the sea can festeggiare with light, that is sparkle.[6]

Timeline

  • Late 13th century – Bonvesin de la Riva uses the verb.[3]
  • Early 14th century – The Italian Valerius Maximus uses it for “to welcome with festivity”.[4]
  • c. 1336 – Zingarelli's date for the verb.[6]
  • Before 1342 – Cavalca uses it for “to celebrate a feast”.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To celebrate an event with a party: Domani festeggiamo la laurea di mia sorella.[5][9][10]
  2. To welcome someone warmly, to make a fuss of: I tifosi hanno festeggiato la squadra all'aeroporto.[5][10][6]
  3. (intransitive) To celebrate, to party; to show joy: Abbiamo vinto: stasera si festeggia![5][9][1]

Word family

  • festeggiamento
  • festeggiato
  • festeggiatore

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  3. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  4. ^ a b c d 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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  8. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  9. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse