Etymologically
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giorno

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈd͡ʒor.no/, /ˈd͡ʒɔr.no/[1]

Forms

giorno m (plural giorni, diminutive giornìno or (uncommon) giornerèllo, pejorative giornàccio)[1] Old forms include iurni (1171), iurnu (12th century), iorno (1224), çorno, giurno and jorno.[2][3] The GDLI also lists the old and dialect forms iórno and iurno.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin diurnum (“day”), short for diurnum tempus (“daytime”), the neuter of the adjective Latin diurnus (“of the day, daily”).[2][5][6][1] The noun is recorded in Latin from the 4th century;[1][7] in classical Latin it had meant “a daily ration” or “a record of the day's events”.[4][8] DELI glosses the base as “belonging to the light”, with diū (“by day”).[2][9] The same word is French jour, Occitan jorn and Catalan jorn: it belongs to Italy, France and Catalonia.[5][10][7]

Nocentini explains that the derived form gradually replaced diēs (“day”) in Gallo-Romance and in part of Italo-Romance because it had more phonetic body than the monosyllable that survives as dì.[5] Meyer-Lübke noted that the word was at first absent from northern and southern Italy and spread there from the written language.[10] Giuliano Bonfante went further and held that it did not continue the Latin word without a break but spread in Italy from the French word or rather from Old Occitan jorn;[2] Clemente Merlo objected, and DELI keeps the direct Latin origin.[2]

The Latin adjective goes back to an older *diusnus, from diūs, the earlier nominative of the word for “day”, with the suffix -nus.[1] De Vaan derives that noun from Proto-Indo-European *dyew- (“the sky, the god of the bright sky”): the day was the time when the sky was bright.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the plural iurni in the Memoratorio del Monte Capraro, a document of 1171 from Molise, in the sense of a span of twenty-four hours; the Ritmo di Sant'Alessio has iurnu in the 12th century, and the Tuscan giorno is in Chiaro Davanzati in the 13th century.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “daylight, the time between sunrise and sunset” is in Saint Francis's Canticle of 1224 (iorno) and in Dante.[2] Re Enzo, before 1272, uses the word for an indefinite stretch of time, and Old Italian already had many fixed phrases: un giorno, l'altro giorno, al giorno, and a tutti i giorni “always”.[2][3] The sense “feast, anniversary” is recorded by Petrocchi in 1887.[2]

French has left marks on the family: Machiavelli notes that pitched battles were called giornate “with a French word”, tutto giorno in Scipione Maffei (1747) translates French toujours, and the embroidery term punto a giorno comes from French à jour.[2][8][4] The derivative giornale meant a daily register from 1393 and a printed newspaper from 1797, while giornalista was taken from French journaliste.[5] In astronomy the word also names the period of one rotation of the Earth or of another body on its axis.[12][13]

Timeline

  • 1171 – The plural iurni appears in a document from Molise.[2][3]
  • 12th century – The Ritmo di Sant'Alessio has iurnu.[2]
  • 1224 – Saint Francis uses iorno for daylight.[2]
  • 13th century – Chiaro Davanzati writes giorno.[2]
  • Before 1272 – Re Enzo uses it for an indefinite time.[2]
  • 1393 – Giornale “daily register” is recorded.[5]
  • 1515–1517 – Machiavelli calls giornate a French word for battles.[2]
  • 1797 – Giornale is used for a newspaper.[5]
  • 1887 – Petrocchi records the sense “feast, anniversary”.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. day: a period of twenty-four hours from one midnight to the next: la gita dura tre giorni.[6][12][14]
  2. A period of twenty-four hours counted from any hour.[6][14]
  3. (astronomy) The time the Earth or another body takes to turn once on its axis.[12][14][13]
  4. The time of daylight between sunrise and sunset, as opposed to the night: di giorno lavora, di sera studia.[6][14]
  5. A day as marked by its weather or events: un giorno di nebbia.[6][14]
  6. A day on which something is celebrated or commemorated: il giorno del suo compleanno.[6][14]
  7. An indefinite time, (plural) a period of life: ripenso spesso a quei giorni.[14][2]

Word family

  • giornata
  • giornale
  • giornaliero
  • giornalista
  • giornalismo
  • giornalaio
  • aggiornare
  • aggiornamento
  • soggiornare
  • soggiorno

Usage notes

Common phrases are buongiorno (good morning), al giorno d'oggi (nowadays), da un giorno all'altro (suddenly), giorno per giorno (day by day) and l'ordine del giorno (the agenda).[6][15][13] The proverb il buon giorno si vede dal mattino means that a good start promises a good outcome.[15][16]

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 j k l m n o p q r 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 Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  4. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  5. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1813
  8. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 505
  9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 203
  10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  15. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET