giù

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Italian giuso in a shortened form, inherited from Late Latin iūsum (“downwards”), which replaced classical Latin deorsum in later Latin.^[2][3][4][1] DELI dates the Late Latin form to the 3rd century, to Tertullian.^[2] Prati and the LEI explain the vowel of the Late Latin variants iōsum and iūsum by the influence of their opposite sūsum (“upwards”), from classical Latin sursum.^[5][6] Prati thinks the final syllable was lost because the word was so often used before other words.^[5] Sabatini–Coletti and the GDLI also describe the word as an apocopated form of the older adverb.^[7][8]

The Latin adverb survives across the Romance languages: forms like the Old Italian gioso, Occitan jos, Catalan jos, Sardinian giòssu and Romanian jos go back to the classical adverb, and forms like Old French jus and Old Spanish yuso to the later variant.^[3][6][9] A shortened form like the Italian one is also Friulian jù.^[6]

The classical deorsum is a compound meaning “turned downwards”, from dē- and vorsum, the archaic form of the participle of vertō (“to turn”), with the loss of /w/ and the shortening of the first of two vowels in hiatus.^[3][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Dante's Commedia (1300–1313), with the sense “down, downwards”.^[2] The Inferno has “così discesi del cerchio primaio / giù nel secondo” (so I went down from the first circle into the second), and the Purgatorio the older form giue.^[8][5] The full form giuso appears in Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch, and DEI places the word in the 13th century.^[5][10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian giù and giuso were used side by side, and in the north the forms ran from zoso and çoso to gioso;^[6][11] Milanese zoso is in Bonvesin de la Riva (before 1315).^[6][11] Giuso later became archaic, and giù is now one of the fundamental words of the language.^[4][12]

The adverb forms many compounds and phrases: laggiù, quaggiù, all'ingiù (Boccaccio) and suppergiù “roughly” are all old.^[5][3] Verbal phrases such as buttare giù “to knock down; to swallow”, mandare giù “to swallow; to put up with” and tirare giù “to take down” have figurative senses, and giù di lì means “thereabouts”.^[13][14][15] After e it marks something coming in abundance, and on its own it is an order to come down or lower something.^[4][14] The adjective giù “low, depressed” is used with essere and sentirsi.^[4][1]

Timeline

• 3rd century – Late Latin iusum is recorded in Tertullian.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses giù for “down”.^[2]
• Before 1315 – Milanese zoso appears in Bonvesin de la Riva.^[6]
• Before 1375 – Boccaccio writes all'ingiù.^[5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. down, below: downwards or in a lower place, with verbs of motion and of rest: Scendo giù a prendere il pane.^{[4][12][7][13]}
2. Downstairs, on the floor below or in the street: I bambini aspettano giù in cortile.^[12][15]
3. Without a verb, as an order to come down or lower something: giù le mani! “hands off!”^[4][14][13]
4. After e, to stress that something comes thick and fast: E giù risate per tutta la sera.^[4][12][14]
5. Repeated, giù giù, for a steady movement down or back in time: La storia della famiglia risale giù giù fino al Seicento.^[4][14]
6. giù di lì: thereabouts, more or less: Avrà trent'anni o giù di lì.^[12][14]

Adjective

1. (colloquial) Low, depressed, in poor shape: Da quando ha perso il lavoro è molto giù.^[4][1]

Word family

• laggiù
• quaggiù
• ingiù
• suppergiù

Related words

• su
• Latin deorsum

Usage notes

Giù is the opposite of su.^[13][7] In Tuscan it doubles the first consonant of the next word.^[7] Fixed phrases include su e giù “up and down; back and forth”, su per giù “roughly”, giù di corda “out of sorts” and mandare giù il rospo “to swallow an insult”.^[13][14][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 508
6. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 1153
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 6, 855
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1817
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli