mercoledì

Forms

mercoledì m (invariable)^[1] Old and dialect forms include mercodì, mercoldì, mercordì, mercole, mercore and mercori.^[2][1] Mercoldì is popular and mercordì archaic.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Mercuriī diēs (“day of Mercury”), taken in the accusative.^[6][7][1] The Latin phrase is found in the 5th century in several inscriptions of Rome and Milan, probably imitating Ancient Greek ἡμέρα Ἑρμοῦ (hēméra Hermoû), which is however recorded later, in 4th-century Sicily.^[6] Nocentini starts from a Vulgar Latin form with the classical genitive replaced by Vulgar Latin *Mercuris, and the shorter Old Italian mercole goes back to this form.^[8][6] The phrase is made up of Latin diēs (“day”) and the god's name Latin Mercurius.^[8]

The name is found throughout Romance: French mercredi, Occitan dimercres, Catalan dimecres, Spanish miércoles, Sardinian mércuris and Romanian miercuri.^[8] Occitan and Catalan keep the Latin order with the word for “day” first, while Spanish, Sardinian and Romanian have the short form without it; Portuguese quarta-feira follows the Christian numbering of the days from Sunday, which dropped the pagan names.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The full form is first recorded in Giovanni Villani, who died in 1348: Carlo, duca di Calavra, … entrò nella città di Firenze mercoledì all'ora di mezzodì (“Charles, duke of Calabria, entered the city of Florence on Wednesday at noon”).^[6][2] The short form merchole appears earlier, in Florentine texts of 1289.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the introduction to Boccaccio's Decameron the company sets out on a Wednesday: La seguente mattina, cioè il mercoledì, … si misero in via (“The next morning, that is Wednesday, they set out”).^[2][9] In northern Italy the type mercore still prevailed in the early 16th century.^[6] In Florence, Tommaseo noted in 1861, mercoledì was more common than mercordì, and he found the shortened mercoldì affected.^[9]

The name comes from the planet Mercury, which old astrology held to rule the first hour of the day.^[3][10][4] The day is the third of the civil week and the fourth of the liturgical one.^[5][2] The Church calendar has mercoledì delle Ceneri, Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and mercoledì santo, the Wednesday of Holy Week.^[7][11] An old Tuscan phrase, guardare verso mercoledì, was said of someone gazing about absently instead of paying attention.^[9]

Timeline

• 5th century – Latin Mercurii die appears in inscriptions of Rome and Milan.^[6]
• 1289 – Florentine texts have the short form merchole.^[6]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses mercoledì.^[6][7]
• Early 16th century – Mercore still prevails in northern Italy.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wednesday, the third day of the week, between martedì and giovedì: Il mercoledì la biblioteca chiude presto.^{[7][3][10][5][12]}

Related words

• lunedì
• martedì
• giovedì
• Mercurio
• French mercredi

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, p. 10, 380
3. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli