Etymologically
Log in

giornata

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 19:53. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /d͡ʒorˈna.ta/[1]

Forms

giornata f (plural giornate)[1] Medieval northern spellings include Old Italian zornada, Old Italian çornata and Old Italian iornata.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Italian giorno + -ata.[3][4][5][6] Several sources, however, see French behind it: the GDLI derives it from the Italian noun through French journée, and Wiktionary treats it as a borrowing of Old French jornee, recorded in Italian from 1230–1250.[7][1] The TLIO accepts the Italian derivation but holds that the French word certainly lies behind the borrowed senses.[2]

DELI singles out two of these French senses: “journey”, at first of a day's length, and “battle”.[8] Machiavelli remarked in his “Discorsi” (1515–1517) on “zuffe campali, chiamate ne' nostri tempi con vocabolo francese giornate, e dagl'Italiani fatti d'arme” (pitched battles, called in our times by the French word “giornate”, and by Italians fatti d'arme).[8] DEI also treats the military sense as a calque of the French word, and notes that the Old French noun for a day's travel passed into English as journey.[9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Pier della Vigna (before 1249), in the sense “the time between dawn and sunset, considered for what happens in it or how it is spent”.[8][3] The TLIO's earliest text is the Cremonese Ugo di Perso, from the first half of the 13th century; in the 13th century the word also meant “day's journey” (Abate di Tivoli) and, at Siena, the day on which a court sat.[2][8][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used giornata for a turn of duty, an appointed meeting, and figuratively for the whole course of a life, often with its end in view.[2] Tommaseo defined it as the span from getting up to going to bed, and stressed its use for a day marked by what happens in it.[10] The day's pay is recorded in Vasari (1550) and the battle in Machiavelli (before 1527).[8]

Carducci (1895) spoke of the Cinque giornate of Milan, the five days of the 1848 rising, and the sense “day devoted to a celebration or cause” is recorded in 1956, the football “matchday” in 1965.[8] In Piedmont the giornata was a land measure: Galanti (1795) wrote that a giornata di vigna is the area a peasant of average strength can work in a day.[8][5] That measure is the one sense German borrowed, as Giornata.[11]

Timeline

  • Before 1249 – Pier della Vigna uses giornata for a day.[8][3]
  • 13th century – The sense “day's journey” appears in the Abate di Tivoli.[8]
  • 1515–1517 – Machiavelli calls giornate a French word for battles.[8]
  • 1550 – Vasari uses it for a day's pay.[8]
  • 1795 – Galanti records the Piedmontese land measure.[8]
  • 1895 – Carducci writes of the Cinque giornate of Milan.[8]
  • 1956 – The sense “day devoted to a cause” is recorded.[8]
  • 1965 – The football sense “matchday” is recorded.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A day, especially the daytime from morning to evening, with regard to the weather or how it is spent: Abbiamo passato una giornata splendida al lago.[3][4][5][1]
  2. (colloquial) non è giornata: it is not one's day, said when things go wrong or one is in a bad mood.[3]
  3. A working day; a day's wage: guadagnarsi la giornata.[3][4][5]
  4. A day devoted to a celebration or cause: giornata mondiale dell'ambiente.[3][5]
  5. A day of historic events; a day of battle, or the battle itself: giornata campale.[3][5][12]
  6. A day's journey: Il santuario è a una giornata di cammino.[3][4][5]
  7. (sport) A round of matches in a league, a matchday.[8][5]
  8. (historical) In Piedmont, a land measure, the area ploughed by a pair of oxen in a day.[5][11]

Word family

  • giornataccia

Usage notes

Common phrases are vivere alla giornata, to live from day to day, lavorare a giornata, to work by the day, in giornata, within the day, and andare a giornate, to be moody or uneven.[4][13][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ 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
  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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  6. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  7. ^ 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, 818
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1813
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 2, 1081
  11. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli