giovedì

Forms

giovedì m (invariable)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian giuovedì, Old Italian giovidì, Old Italian giuvedì and Old Italian iovedì.^[2] Northern Italy and the Marche have the type giobia (also zobia).^[3][4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Iovis diēs (“day of Jupiter”), with Iovis, the genitive of Iuppiter (“Jupiter”), before diēs (“day”).^[5][6][1] Nocentini describes it as a Romance formation from Vulgar Latin *Iovis diem, in the accusative.^[7] In the imperial Roman calendar the days of the week were tied to the planets, and the fifth day, counting from the day of the Sun, was the day of Jupiter.^[7] The dictionaries explain the name by the old astrological belief that the planet ruled the first hour of that day.^[4][8][9]

The same phrase gave French jeudi, with the words in the Italian order, while Occitan dijous and Catalan dijous have them the other way round, and Spanish jueves and Romanian joi keep only the genitive.^[7][3] The shortened type is also southern Italian, Vegliote, Sardinian and Piedmontese.^[3] Sardinian gióbia comes from an adjective Vulgar Latin *iovia made to agree with the word for “day” used as a feminine, and Portuguese quinta-feira counts the days in the Jewish and Christian manner instead.^[7]

Several Italian dialects took their name for the day from the same popular derivative, and northern writers of the early 16th century, among them Bembo, Pigafetta and Castiglione, still used ⟨giove⟩ or ⟨giobia⟩.^[5] The standard form is that of the Apennine centre of Italy, against northern and Marchigian giobia.^[3][4]

The genitive is a regularised stem that continues the inflection of Proto-Indo-European *dyḗws; the older form was Diovis.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in a Sienese text by Mattasalà (1233–1243), in the sense of the fifth day of the Jewish and Christian week, the fourth of the modern civil calendar.^[2] DELI's first examples are giovidì in a text of Arrigo Accattapane (1253) and giuovedie in a Florentine text of 1292.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Religious names appeared early: giovedì santo, the Thursday before Easter, is recorded in 1295, and Old Italian also had giovedì assoluto for the same day and giovedì dell'Ascensione for Ascension Day.^[5][2] Giovedì grasso, the last Thursday of Carnival, is found from the 16th century; in Florence the day was called berlingaccio, and Benedetto Varchi noted that the Lombards called it la giobbia grassa.^[5] Tommaseo records giovedì di passione, the Thursday before Holy Thursday.^[10]

Modern Italian calls 24 October 1929, when the New York Stock Exchange crashed, the giovedì nero.^[11][9] Of someone who is not quite right in the head people say gli manca qualche giovedì, though the more common form of the phrase has venerdì.^[8][12]

Timeline

• 1233–1243 – A Sienese text by Mattasalà has the first record.^[2]
• 1253 – Giovidì appears in a text of Arrigo Accattapane.^[5]
• 1292 – The form giuovedie is recorded.^[5][6]
• 1295 – Giovedì and giovedì santo are recorded.^[5]
• 16th century – Giovedì grasso appears.^[5]
• Before 1565 – Benedetto Varchi compares Florentine berlingaccio with Lombard giobbia grassa.^[5]
• 1929 – The stock market crash of 24 October gives the giovedì nero.^[11][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Thursday, the fourth day of the civil week and the fifth in the liturgical count, after mercoledì and before venerdì: Ci vediamo giovedì sera in piazza.^[6][13][11]

Related words

• giobia
• Giove
• lunedì
• Latin Iuppiter
• Latin diēs
• French jeudi

Usage notes

The noun is invariable (il giovedì, i giovedì).^[1][6] With the article, or with di, it names a habitual day: il giovedì or di giovedì “on Thursdays”.^[13][8]

Fixed phrases: giovedì santo (Holy Thursday), giovedì grasso (the last Thursday of Carnival), giovedì nero (Black Thursday, 24 October 1929) and la settimana dei tre giovedì (never).^[6][11][14] Essere come il giovedì is said of someone who is always in the way, since Thursday falls in the middle of the week.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1814
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, p. 6, 832
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana