mese

Forms

mese m (plural mesi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mēnsis (“month”), from the accusative ⟨mensem⟩.^[2][3][4][1] The word is found in all the Romance languages: French mois, Occitan mes, Catalan mes, Spanish mes, Portuguese mês, Sardinian mese, Friulian mes, Romansh mais, Dalmatian mais and Aromanian mes.^[3][5] DEI and Meyer-Lübke write the etymon with its nasal in brackets, ⟨me(n)sis⟩, and none of the Romance forms keeps the /n/.^[6][5]

The Latin noun continues Proto-Italic *mēns, an old Indo-European word that meant both “month” and “moon”; in Latin, as in some other languages, it kept only the first meaning.^[2][3][7] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *mḗh₁n̥s as an s-stem, probably from the root *meh₁- (“to measure”), since the moon was the natural measure of time; the same root is in metro and misura.^[7][3][1] Related words are Ancient Greek μήν (mḗn), Sanskrit मास् (mā́s), Lithuanian mėnuo, Russian месяц (mésjac), German Mond (“moon”) and Monat (“month”), and English moon and month.^[3][7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is a document from the Marche (Carta picena) of 1193, with the sense “period of about thirty days”.^[2][3][4] The sense “one of the twelve parts of the year” is first recorded in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The months of pregnancy are counted in Iacopone da Todi, who uses the plural misi before 1306; the singular mese in this use is in a vernacular Bible of the same period.^[2] The sense “monthly pay, monthly rent” is first recorded in Giovanni Della Casa (before 1556), though DEI finds it in the 15th century.^[2][6] The plural i mesi for menstruation appears in Lodovico Domenichi in 1561.^[6][8]

The derivative mesata “monthly wage” is first written mexata by Marin Sanudo in 1500; the Crusca recorded it in the older sense “a whole month”.^[2] Tommaseo's dictionary of 1861 quotes the Tuscan proverb Tutti i mesi non son di trentuno, “not every month has thirty-one days”.^[9] Mese mariano is May, the month dedicated to the Virgin.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1193 – A document from the Marche has mese “period of about thirty days”.^[2][3]
• Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses the word for a month of the calendar.^[2]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi counts the months of pregnancy.^[2]
• 1500 – Marin Sanudo uses mexata “month's pay”.^[2]
• Before 1556 – Giovanni Della Casa uses mese for monthly pay.^[2]
• 1561 – Lodovico Domenichi uses i mesi for menstruation.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. month, one of the twelve parts of the calendar year, of 28 to 31 days: Ci vediamo all'inizio del mese.^[4][12][13]
2. A period of about thirty days: Sono rimasto in ospedale un mese.^[4][13][10]
3. A month's pay, or a month's rent: pagare il mese all'inquilino.^[4][13][14]
4. A month of pregnancy: essere al settimo mese.^[4][10][14]
5. (popular, in the plural) menstruation.^[4][13][14]

Word family

• mesata
• mesetto

Related words

• mensile
• semestre
• trimestre
• Latin mensis

Usage notes

The /s/ of mese is pronounced voiced or voiceless depending on the region;^[10][1] Wiktionary gives both /ˈme.ze/ and /ˈme.se/.^[10][1] GRADIT lists an unrelated technical mese (feminine), the middle string of the ancient Greek musical system, from Greek mésē “middle (string)”, first recorded before 1597.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2434
7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 656
9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 3, 218
10. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana