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lunedì

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word lunedì

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
13th century, Mattasala di Spinello
Inherited from
Latin lunae dies
Ultimate origin
Latin lūna,diēs

Pronunciation

Forms

lunedì m (invariable)[1] Old Italian had lunidie, lunedie and lunidì, and older dialect forms include lune and luni.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Lūnae diēs (“day of the Moon”), made of lūna (“moon”) and diēs (“day”).[2][4][5][1] The name comes from astrology: the Moon was thought to rule the first hour of the day.[6][7][8][3] The names of the weekdays after the heavenly bodies belong to a Greek astronomical calendar of Semitic origin, which became established at Rome in the 2nd century AD and spread by loan or calque to the Celtic and Germanic languages.[4]

The word is panromance: French lundi, Occitan diluns, Catalan dilluns, Spanish lunes, Sardinian lunis and Romanian luni.[4] Catalan keeps the original order “day + Moon”, from a Late Latin form with the genitive ⟨Lunis⟩ made on the model of ⟨Martis⟩; the reversed order spread from Old French lunsdi, perhaps under the influence of Germanic, as in Old High German mānatag, German Montag and English Monday.[4][9] Spanish, Sardinian and Romanian use the short form, while Portuguese segunda-feira follows the Christian count of days from Sunday.[4]

Latin lūna goes back to Proto-Italic ⟨*louksnā-⟩ and Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“light, bright”), an epithet of the moon meaning “shining”.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is lunidie in the Sienese account book of Mattasala di Spinello, of the 13th century: Ebeli lunidie x die a l'escita di genaio “I had them on Monday, the tenth day at the end of January”.[2][3] The form lunedì appears in Restoro d'Arezzo in 1282.[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Monday is the first day of the civil week but the second of the Church's, which counts from Sunday.[5][6][8] Workers who had to work on Sunday took Monday off, and Old Italian called this rest day lunediana; wool workers, who were paid on Monday, were said to fare la lunediana.[4][3][9]

The Church calendar names particular Mondays: lunedì santo in Holy Week, lunedì dell'Angelo after Easter, popularly Pasquetta, and lunedì grasso, the last Monday of Carnival.[5][6][11]

Timeline

  • 12th century – Old French lunsdi is recorded.[9]
  • 13th century – Lunidie appears in the account book of Mattasala di Spinello.[2]
  • 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo writes lunedì.[2][4]
  • Before 1665 – Lunediana, the workers' Monday holiday, is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Monday: the first day of the civil week and the second of the liturgical week: Il negozio resta chiuso il lunedì.[5][6][7][1]

Word family

  • lunediana

Usage notes

Lunedì is masculine and invariable.[5][1] With the article it means “every Monday” (il lunedì, also di lunedì), without it a particular Monday (ci vediamo lunedì).[7][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2285
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Lunedì.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/luned%C3%AC. Accessed 23 Oct. 2026.

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