maggio

Forms

maggio m (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Maius, with mēnsis (“month”) understood.^[2][3][4][1]

The same word is French mai, Occitan mai, Catalan maig, Spanish mayo, Portuguese maio, Sardinian maju and Romanian maiu.^[5][6] The Latin word passed into Old High German meio, whence German Mai, and the French word into Middle English may.^[7]

The month was dedicated to Maia, the Italic goddess who was the mother of Mercury.^[5][3][4] Nocentini takes her name to be probably the same as maius (“greater”), the comparative of magnus (“great”), so that she was “the great goddess”;^[5][8] Sabatini–Coletti calls the origin uncertain.^[5][8] DELI, following Tagliavini, explains the month as dedicated to a “great god”, from the root of the same adjective.^[2] Wiktionary also records the view that the name is short for a Latin phrase for “the great god”, Jupiter.^[1] Isidore of Seville already offered two reasons: Maia, or the elders to whom the Romans dedicated the month.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest form is maio, in the descort of Raimbaut de Vaqueiras, written before 1202.^[2][5] A Florentine bankers' book of 1211 has magio and matgio, and maggio is found in a Sienese letter of 1260.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old poetry already linked the month with roses and spring: Filippo da Messina opens a poem Oi rosa fresca che di magio apari (“O fresh rose that appear in May”).^[9] Figuratively the word stands for youthful freshness, as in il maggio della vita, youth.^[4][1]

The spring festivals of the first of May gave the month's name to the customs that went with them: the flowering branch that young men in Tuscany set at the door of the girl they loved, the tree carried in procession, the songs sung then, and the popular plays still performed in the Apennines of Tuscany and Emilia.^[3][8][5] REW holds that the sense “May tree” arose in France, with the May Day festivals there, and spread to Italy and Spain; the form maio “May branch” shows the French origin.^[6] In Tuscany maggio is also the broom, which flowers in that month, and elsewhere other plants that flower in May.^[5][3]

Derivatives name things of the season: maggese, fallow land, because it was ploughed in May, recorded in 1598 in Florio;^[2][5] maggiociondolo, the laburnum (1729–1738); and maggiolino, the cockchafer (1834), whose larvae emerge in late spring, later also a car named for the shape of its body.^[2][5]

Timeline

• Before 1202 – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras writes maio in his descort.^[2][5]
• 1211 – A Florentine bankers' book has magio and matgio.^[2]
• 1260 – A Sienese letter has maggio.^[2]
• 14th century – Maio is recorded for the May branch.^[7]
• 1586 – English may “May branch” is recorded.^[7]
• 1598 – Florio records maggese “fallow land”.^[2]
• 1834 – Maggiolino “cockchafer” is recorded.^[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. May, the fifth month of the year: ai primi di maggio.^[3][4][8][1]
2. (figurative, literary) Bloom, prime: il maggio della vita.^[4][1]
3. (regional, historical) The flowering branch set at the door of a loved girl on the first of May; the tree carried in procession at the spring festivals; the song sung on that day.^[3][4][8]
4. (theatre) A popular play on a sacred or heroic story, with songs, performed for the May festivals in the Apennines of Tuscany and Emilia.^[3][4][8]
5. (botany, regional) Any of several plants that flower in May, such as the broom.^[3][5]

Word family

• maggengo
• maggese
• maggiociondolo
• maggiolata
• maggiolino
• maggiaiolo

Related words

• maggiore
• Latin Maius

Usage notes

Il primo maggio is Labour Day, and il maggio francese is May 1968 in France.^[4] The archaic adjective maggio “greater”, also an adverb “more”, comes from Latin maior and is recorded before 1294: Dante writes trovammo l'altro assai più fero e maggio (“we found the other far fiercer and larger”).^[3][10][8] It survives in place names such as the Via Maggio in Florence.^[10][6]

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 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 f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2312
8. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 428
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 9, 429