mattino

Forms

mattino m (plural mattini)^[1] Old forms include Tuscan Old Italian maitino and northern Old Italian maitin and Old Italian matin.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mātūtīnum (“early morning”), short for mātūtīnum tempus (“morning time”), the neuter of the adjective mātūtīnus (“of the morning”).^[4][5][6][1] The adjective is formed from Mātūta, the goddess of dawn, with the suffix -īnus.^[5][7][1] Nocentini explains “Mātūta” as “the good goddess”, from a family that includes Latin mātūrus (“ripe”) and mānus (“good”), from a root *mā-.^[5] The more common mattina continues the feminine “mātūtīna (hōra)”.^[4][5]

The word has a match in French matin and Catalan matí, and the plural gave the name of the morning office, Catalan matines and, from it Spanish maitines.^[8] The GDLI explains the shortening of the Latin word as haplology, Sabatini–Coletti as the loss of the vowel before the stress.^[9][10] The forms with ⟨ai⟩, Old Tuscan “maitino”, Old Provençal “maiti” and Brescian “maitì”, are a second type, and Romansh, Ladin and Friulian “madins” a third.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, in the form maitino, with the sense “morning”.^[4][5][6] The TLIO's earliest is the Cremonese Libro of Uguccione da Lodi, of the early 13th century, where the word names the part of the day from sunrise to noon.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The form mattino appears in Dante (1300–1313), who opens the Inferno at “the beginning of the morning” (dal principio del mattino).^[4][9][11] Old Italian also used the word for the morning office of the Church and for the east, the sense of Ulysses' voyage in the Inferno: e volta nostra poppa nel mattino, “and turning our stern to the east”.^[2][6][12] Petrarch has dal mattino alla sera, “all day long”, in 1374.^[4]

In the 19th century Manzoni, revising I promessi sposi for the 1840 edition, replaced mattino with mattina, which Rohlfs saw as the commoner word in Italy, mattino being more usual in the south, for example in Lucania.^[4] Il mattino della vita, the first youth, is recorded before 1828 (Ippolito Pindemonte), and the giornali del mattino, the morning papers, in 1970; the Roman Messaggero was for a time called Giornale del mattino.^[4] Proverbs include il mattino ha l'oro in bocca, “the morning has gold in its mouth”, and il buon giorno si vede dal mattino, “a good day shows from the morning”.^[13][12]

Timeline

• Early 13th century – Uguccione da Lodi uses the word, the TLIO's first record.^[2]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini writes maitino.^[4][6]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the form mattino.^[4]
• 1374 – Petrarch has dal mattino alla sera.^[4]
• Before 1828 – Ippolito Pindemonte writes of the morning of life.^[4]
• 1840 – Manzoni replaces mattino with mattina in I promessi sposi.^[4]
• 1970 – I giornali del mattino is recorded for the morning papers.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. morning: the part of the day between sunrise and noon; mattina: Ci vediamo domani alle nove del mattino.^[6][13][10]
2. (literary) The east.^[6][13][14]
3. (figurative) The beginning of something, il mattino della vita, youth.^[6][13][12]
4. (obsolete) The morning office, matins.^[6][14]

Related words

• mattina
• mattiniero
• mattinata
• mattutino
• stamattina
• Latin mātūtīnus
• French matin

Usage notes

Mattino and mattina are synonyms, but mattino is less common, especially in speech.^[14][10] Fixed phrases are di buon mattino “early in the morning”, dal mattino alla sera “all day long”, la stella del mattino “Venus”, and durare lo spazio di un mattino “to be short-lived”.^[6][12][15] An obsolete adjective mattino, “of the morning; early rising”, is recorded in Sant'Antonino and the Tavola Ritonda.^[9][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 646
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli