meriare

Forms

meriare (first-person singular present mèrio; auxiliary avere), used almost only in the infinitive^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin merīdiō (“to take a midday rest”).^[4][5][2][6] The Latin verb comes from merīdiēs (“midday”).^[6][1] Devoto describes the Italian verb as a shortening of the Latin verb.^[7] The GDLI takes it instead from meriggiare by syncope and quotes Rohlfs, who thought it came from the south, where the verb is also Calabrian.^[8]

The Latin verb lives on in other Romance languages: Romanian meriza, Aromanian amiridzari and Megleno-Romanian mirindzari, and it was borrowed as Albanian mërzej.^[9][1] Tuscan also formed merìa and merìo, a shady, cool place where animals rest.^[9][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the verb to the first half of the 15th century and Zingarelli to the 15th century, both with the sense “to rest at midday”;^[5][2][4] DEI dates it to the 16th century.^[5][2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Tuscany, Sermini sets a meeting in su l’ora di meriare (“at the hour of the midday rest”), after dinner.^[8] In Lastri's book on farming it is said of cattle that gather near water in the hottest hours to lie down and sleep out of reach of the insects; the places were called merii.^[8][10] The modern dictionaries call it rare or uncommon and Tuscan, used almost only in the infinitive.^[2][3][6]

Timeline

• 1400–1450 – GRADIT's date for meriare.^[5][2]
• 1500s – DEI's date for the word.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, rare, Tuscany) To rest in the shade in the hours after noon: meriggiare.^[5][6][8]
2. (of animals) To lie and sleep in a shady place during the hottest hours.^[8][10]

Related words

• meriggiare
• meriggio
• meridiano
• Latin meridies

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2430
5. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 279
8. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET