gonna

Forms

gonna f (plural gonne)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin gunna (“fur, fur garment”), recorded from the 6th century; the fur was worn round the hips and over part of the legs.^[2][3][4][1] The same word is Old French gonne and Old Occitan gona “woman's skirt”, from which Old Catalan and Old Spanish took it.^[5][6][7] In modern French gonne came to mean a beer barrel.^[5][6]

The Latin word is a loan, and its source is disputed.^[2][3] The traditional view, held by Meyer-Lübke, Prati and Thurneysen, is that it is Gaulish.^[5][6][8] DELI reports that scholars now favour a Balkan word of Iranian origin.^[2] Nocentini also prefers a Balkan source to a Gaulish one: the Gallo-Romance languages have the same later sense “skirt” as Italian, while the Balkan languages kept the old sense, as in Modern Greek γούνα (goúna, “goatskin cloak”) and Albanian gunë.^[3] Wiktionary traces the Latin word to Proto-Slavic *guna (“coarse fur garment”), probably through Byzantine Greek γούνα (goúna), unless the borrowing went the other way.^[1] DEI leaves the source language undetermined.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dante, before 1321, uses gonna for a woman's garment covering the body from the waist down.^[2] In the Paradiso he writes of a time with “no chain, no crown, no ornamented skirts” (non avea catenella, non corona, / non gonne contigiate).^[9] The diminutive gonnella is older on record, in a declaration of 1178–1182.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the gonna was a sleeveless hooded cloak, at first for men and later for women too, worn over other clothes;^[4][10][11] Petrarch still uses it for men's dress.^[4][10][11] Tommaseo noted that it belonged to the written language, especially verse.^[11] The French lexicographer Oudin called gonna a poetic word and gonnella the everyday one, but Prati found that modern usage preferred gonna as the nobler of the two.^[8] Older senses, now obsolete, were “animal skin” and “tunic of the eye”.^[4][12]

Gonnella came to stand for a woman in Goldoni (1789), and gonnellino for the Scottish kilt in 1956.^[2] The gonna pantalone renders French jupe-culotte.^[13][14] In motor vehicles gonne are the guards behind the wheels of a lorry that keep it from throwing up spray.^[4][13]

Timeline

• 1178–1182 – Gonnella appears in a declaration from Paxia.^[2]
• 1228 – Medieval Latin gunnella is recorded in a Bari charter.^[8]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses gonna.^[2][9]
• Before 1446 – Pandolfini uses gonnellino.^[2]
• 1789 – Goldoni uses gonnella for “woman”.^[2]
• 1855 – Fanfani records sgonnellare.^[3][8]
• 1869 – Sottogonna is first recorded.^[3]
• 1956 – Gonnellino is used for the Scottish kilt.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. skirt: a woman's garment covering the body from the waist down, of varying length and cut: Per la festa ha scelto una gonna di velluto blu.^[4][13][15]
2. (historical) A sleeveless hooded over-garment, first worn by men and later also by women.^[4][13][10]
3. (automotive, chiefly in the plural) A spray guard fitted beside and behind the wheels of a lorry.^[4][13][12]
4. (obsolete) An animal pelt.^[4][12]
5. (obsolete, anatomy) A tunic of the eye.^[4][12]

Word family

• gonnella
• gonnellino
• sgonnellare
• sottogonna

Related words

• Late Latin gunna
• French gonne

Usage notes

The word is pronounced with either an open or a closed o: /ˈɡɔn.na/ or /ˈɡon.na/.^[13][14][1] Sottana is a regional synonym.^[10][15] Fixed expressions are gonna a portafoglio (wrap skirt) and gonna pantalone (culottes).^[4][14]

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 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1845
8. ^ a b c d Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 517
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse