luogo

Forms

luogo m (plural luoghi)^[1] The plural is luoghi;^[2][3] Old Italian also had a feminine plural luògora.^[2][3] The archaic and poetic form is loco, the popular one logo, and old Tuscan had luoco.^[2][4][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin locus (“place”), from its accusative.^[3][5][6][1] The older form Old Italian loco keeps the Latin sounds, while the modern form shows the Tuscan diphthong of a stressed open /ɔ/ in an open syllable and the northern voicing of /k/ to /g/;^[5][7][8][1] Wiktionary gives the chain loco, then luoco, then luogo.^[5][7][8][1] DEI therefore calls the word one of northern origin.^[4]

The word is found in all the Romance languages: French lieu, Occitan luec, Catalan lloc, Spanish luego (“then, soon”), Portuguese logo (“soon”), Sardinian logu and Romanian loc.^[5][9] In the south-west of the Romance area it was rivalled or replaced by the derivative of Latin locālis (Spanish lugar), because the frozen form of the noun had become an adverb meaning “on the spot”, then “at once, soon”.^[10]

The older Latin form stlocus is recorded by Quintilian.^[11][12] Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny derived it from Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to put, place”), but de Vaan objects that no such suffix is known; he considers a preform *slok-o- and leaves the origin open, and DELI calls the word unexplained.^[11][1][3] Several technical senses of the Latin word were taken over from Ancient Greek τόπος (tópos, “place”), and the phrase locī commūnēs translates τόποι κοινοί (tópoi koinoí).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the word to 1221.^[5] In DELI the first records are Guittone d'Arezzo's loco and Dante's luogo, both before 1294, in the sense “a portion of space, really or ideally bounded”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Brunetto Latini, before 1294, already uses the word for a region of the earth, for the place where something happens, for a town or village, for a passage in a book and, figuratively, for the right moment.^[3] Dante has it for a part of a body (1304–1308), and in the 14th century it named a building or room used for a purpose and, figuratively, social rank (d'umil loco, “of humble station”).^[3]

In 1549 Bernardo Segni explains Aristotle's luoghi comuni as the topics of rhetoric and dialectic, a phrase that passed into all the European languages and later took on its negative sense of “cliché”.^[3] Aver luogo “to take place” is compared by DEI with French avoir lieu, and luogo comodo was a popular word for a latrine.^[4][13] The mathematical luogo geometrico “locus” is in Maria Gaetana Agnesi in 1748.^[3] In Lombardy and Veneto luogo also meant a farm or estate, a sense Manzoni brought back into the written language.^[4][9]

Luogotenente “lieutenant” (before 1363) follows Latin locum tenens but was adapted from French lieutenant.^[3]

Timeline

• 1221 – The word is first recorded.^[5]
• Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses loco and Dante luogo.^[3]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses it for a region, a town and a passage in a book.^[3]
• 14th century – The feminine plural luogora is recorded in the Bestiario toscano.^[3]
• Before 1363 – Matteo Villani uses luogotenente.^[3]
• 1549 – Bernardo Segni explains luoghi comuni.^[3]
• 1748 – Maria Gaetana Agnesi uses luogo geometrico.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A portion of space, really or ideally bounded: un luogo immaginario.^[6][2][7]
2. An area or locality; a town or village: Siamo tornati nei luoghi della nostra infanzia.^[6][7][14]
3. The place where something happens or has happened: Ci siamo dati appuntamento nel solito luogo.^[6][2][7]
4. A building or room used for a purpose: luogo di culto.^[6][2][14]
5. A part of an object or body: La vernice si è staccata in più luoghi.^[6][15]
6. A passage in a book or argument.^[6][3]
7. (geometry) A locus, the set of points satisfying a condition.^[6][2][14]
8. (astronomy) The position of a star on the celestial sphere.^[6][2][14]
9. (rhetoric) A general argument or topic applicable to particular cases.^[6]

Word family

• luogotenente
• luogotenenza
• luogotenenziale
• sopralluogo

Related words

• loco
• locale
• locare
• loculo
• allogare
• Latin locus
• French lieu

Usage notes

Common phrases are avere luogo (to take place), dare luogo a (to give rise to), in luogo di (instead of), fuori luogo (out of place), in primo luogo (in the first place) and luogo comune (a commonplace).^[6][16][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2286
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 h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 1
14. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli