meriggiare

Forms

meriggiare (first-person singular present merìggio, first-person singular past historic meriggiài, past participle meriggiàto, auxiliary avére)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin merīdiāre (“to take a midday rest”), a verb formed on merīdiēs (“midday”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Tommaseo also cites the deponent meridiari and compares Ancient Greek μεσημβριάζω (mesēmbriázō), and DEI sees the Latin verb as a calque of the Greek one.^[6][7]

The verb lives on in the south and in Sardinia: Sicilian mirijari and Sardinian meriare.^[7][8] The older language had a variant meriare beside it.^[7][9]

The Latin noun comes from an older locative “at midday”, with the first /d/ changed to /r/ by dissimilation from the /d/ of diēs (“day”).^[10][2] In Italian the group /dj/ of a Vulgar Latin *meridjare gave ⟨ggi⟩, as in moggio from modius.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is figurative, in Zucchero's Florentine exposition of the Lord's Prayer from the early 14th century: Nell'ombra di tale albero si dee il buon cuore meriggiare (“in the shade of such a tree the good heart should take its midday rest”).^[12] The sense is spending the hot hours around noon out of the sun.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In the Tuscan version of Gregory's Moralia (before 1361) people meriggiarono “rested in the noon heat”, and the Tuscan Esopo (after 1388) shows an old man resting at midday in the shade of a tree.^[12] DELI dates the verb from this Esopo, where the noun meriggio means “shade”.^[10] Tommaseo calls it uncommon but forceful and quotes a figurative use for idling.^[6]

From the start the word belonged to the written language: GRADIT marks it as literary.^[3] Montale's line Meriggiare pallido e assorto made it famous in the 20th century, and Treccani reads it as a rest of the spirit.^[4][13][14] Beside the literary sense the dictionaries record a plain siesta indoors after a meal, and a transitive use for resting livestock in the shade.^[4][14][3] Zingarelli marks the senses “to idle” and the transitive use as obsolete.^[15]

Timeline

• Early 14th century – Zucchero uses meriggiare figuratively in his exposition of the Lord's Prayer.^[12]
• Before 1361 – Zanobi da Strada's version of Gregory's Moralia has meriggiarono.^[12]
• After 1388 – The Tuscan Esopo describes an old man resting at noon under a tree.^[12][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, literary) To rest outdoors in a cool, shady place during the hottest hours around noon: I mietitori meriggiavano sotto un grande olmo.^[3][4][14]
2. (intransitive, uncommon) To take a siesta indoors after the midday meal.^[4][14][16]
3. (intransitive, by extension) To idle.^[3][13]
4. (transitive) To rest livestock in the shade in the hot hours of the day.^[3][14][16]

Word family

• meriggiante
• meriggione

Related words

• meriggio
• pomeriggio
• Latin merīdiēs

Usage notes

The verb takes avere.^[4][1] DEI also records a 17th-century noun meriggione “idler”.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2430
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 279
12. ^ a b c d e f Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
15. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli