merenda

Forms

merenda f (plural merende)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin merenda (“light afternoon meal”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin noun comes from the gerundive of mereō (“to earn, deserve”): DELI and GRADIT take it as a neuter plural, “things to be earned”, Nocentini as a feminine, “something one must earn”.^[2][4][3] DELI compares praebenda from praebeō.^[2] The OLD notes that the meal was apparently first given to labourers as part of their wages.^[2][5] Isidore's definition, “food taken as the day declines”, links it with merīdiēs (“midday”), but that link is a folk etymology.^[2]

The word is found across the Romance languages: Romanian merinde, Dalmatian marionda, Friulian mirinde, Old French marende, Occitan merenda, Catalan berena, Spanish merienda, Portuguese merenda and Sardinian merenda, and Sicilian virenna.^[3][6]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *mer-ē- (“to earn”) and, with a question mark, Proto-Indo-European *(s)mr-eh₁-, related to Ancient Greek μείρομαι (meíromai, “to receive one's share”) and μέρος (méros, “part”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Anonimo Genovese, before 1311, for an afternoon meal before supper.^[8] DELI's first record is in Boccaccio's Decameron (1348–1353), for an afternoon snack: two lovers talk of a merenda they mean to have in a garden.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

By about 1400, in Giovanni Sercambi, the word also named the food eaten at the merenda.^[2] Tommaseo records it as well for a snack children have some hours before the midday meal, and the Tuscan proverb San Luca, la merenda nella buca: on Saint Luke's day, 18 October, the summer afternoon snacks come to an end.^[9] In the dialects of Pisa, Grosseto and Monte Amiata merenda names the main meal, and the snack is merendino.^[10]

The saying entrarci come i cavoli a merenda, “to fit in like cabbage at a snack”, is said of something that has nothing to do with the matter in hand.^[11][9] The diminutive merendina, dated to the 20th century, now mostly means a packaged snack cake.^[3][11]

Timeline

• Before 1311 – The Anonimo Genovese uses merenda.^[8]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for an afternoon snack.^[2]
• 14th century – The verb merendare is recorded.^[3]
• About 1400 – Giovanni Sercambi uses it for the food eaten at the snack.^[2]
• 20th century – Merendina is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An afternoon snack, a light meal between lunch and dinner, especially for children: Alle cinque i bambini fanno merenda.^[4][12][13]
2. The food eaten at this snack: Hai messo la merenda nello zaino?^[4][12][14]
3. A mid-morning snack, especially at school during the break.^[4][12][14]
4. A cold meal eaten outdoors on an outing; a picnic.^[4][12][1]

Word family

• merendina
• merendare
• merendone
• merendino
• merenduola
• merendiere

Related words

• merito
• meritare
• Latin mereō
• Spanish merienda

Usage notes

In Lucca a separate dialect word merenda names the tail of a child's shirt sticking out of the opening of his trousers;^[15][10] Cortelazzo and Marcato derive it from Latin verenda, “private parts”.^[15][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2429
11. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET