Etymologically
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giornale

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Pronunciation

  • /d͡ʒorˈna.le/[1]

Forms

giornale m (plural giornali)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian giorno + -ale, on the model of Latin diurnālis (“daily”).[2][3][4][1] The TLIO and the GDLI see the model rather in French journal, and Gabrielli names both.[5][6][7] The Latin adjective is formed on diurnus (“of the day”), from diēs (“day”).[1][8] De Vaan traces “diēs” to the accusative of Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws (“god of the clear sky”): the day was the time when the sky is bright.[9][1]

The word was first an adjective, “daily”, and the noun comes from phrases such as “foglio giornale” or “libro giornale”, a sheet or book kept day by day.[2][4][10][1] DELI points out that the noun's senses arose in the opposite order to the one they have today: first the merchant's daybook, then the diary, then a periodical, above all a literary one, and last the daily newspaper.[2] In that last sense French journal, recorded from 1631 and shortened from “papier journal” (1553), played its part.[11][6] The derivative giornalista in its modern sense, and giornalismo, follow French journaliste (1704) and “journalisme” (1788).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Lombard poem of Pietro da Bescapè (1274), for something that happens every day.[5] The TLIO also has stella giornale for the morning star, the planet Venus, apparently a calque of French étoile journale.[5] As a noun the word first appears in commerce, as giornale del banco, the daily register of a bank, in 1394.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In 1573 Lionardo Salviati could still explain the writer of a diario as the writer of a giornale, “in our way of speaking”, and DELI records the sense “diary” in 1552.[2] Lorenzo Magalotti rendered the French Journal des Sçavans as giornale de' letterati, and a Giornale de' letterati was published in Rome in 1673.[2] The first newspapers in Italy, in 16th-century Venice, were called avvisi or gazzette.[11][12] The modern sense spread at the beginning of the 19th century, with titles such as Vincenzo Cuoco's Giornale italiano (Milan, 1804); Nocentini dates the sense “printed sheet” to 1797.[11][12][13]

Giornalista first named an official of the Venetian banks (1584) and then a compiler of literary journals (1669); in 1886 Rigutini still accepted its modern sense only reluctantly.[2] The 20th century added giornale parlato (1922–1923) and giornale radio (1950) for the radio news, and giornale murale (1932), a wall newspaper, after the Russian stengazeta.[2] The adjective “daily” is now obsolete.[14][10]

Timeline

  • 1274 – Pietro da Bescapè uses giornale “daily”.[5]
  • 1394 – Giornale del banco, a bank's daybook, is recorded.[2][3]
  • 1552 – The word is used for a diary.[2]
  • 1584 – Giornalista names an official of the Venetian banks.[2]
  • 1673 – The Giornale de' letterati appears in Rome.[2]
  • 1797 – The sense “printed newspaper” is recorded.[13]
  • 1804 – Vincenzo Cuoco's Giornale italiano appears in Milan.[12]
  • 1950 – Giornale radio is recorded.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A newspaper, especially a daily one: Ogni mattina compro il giornale all'edicola sotto casa.[3][15][4]
  2. A periodical or magazine: un giornale di cucina.[3][15][4]
  3. The offices of a newspaper: È rimasto al giornale fino a mezzanotte.[3][15][14]
  4. A news bulletin on radio or television: il giornale radio delle otto.[15][4]
  5. A diary or log in which events are written down day by day: il giornale di bordo.[3][15][14]
  6. (accounting) A daybook, the register of a firm's daily transactions.[3][15][10]

Adjective

  1. (obsolete) Daily.[3][14][1]

Word family

  • giornalaio
  • giornaletto
  • giornalino
  • giornalismo
  • giornalista
  • giornalistico
  • giornaliero
  • giornalmente
  • giornalese
  • giornalesco
  • telegiornale

Usage notes

Giornale di bordo is a ship's logbook, libro giornale the daybook firms must keep by law, and giornale di classe a school class register.[3][10][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  4. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  5. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  6. ^ 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, 816
  7. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ 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 d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  11. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1813
  12. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 505
  13. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  14. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  15. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier