mezzodì

Forms

mezzodì m (invariable)^[1] Old forms include Old Italian meçodie and Old Italian meççodie in Ristoro d'Arezzo.^[2] It was also written as two words, mezzo dì, mezo dì and mezzo die, and Old Italian mezzodie is found as well.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is a compound from Italian mezzo (“middle”) + dì (“day”), “middle of the day”.^[5][6][7][8] Wiktionary also allows a direct origin in the phrase Latin mediam diem “the middle of the day”.^[1] The same formation is French midi, Catalan migdia, Occitan mieidia, Portuguese meio-dia, Spanish mediodía and Romanian miazăzi.^[1][9][10]

The second part, the old word for “day”, competed with giorno, from Latin diurnum;^[11][9] mezzogiorno is the parallel compound.^[11][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The LEI's oldest record is Old Lombard meço dí (1274), and DELI's are 13th-century Florentine texts and Ristoro d'Arezzo (1282).^[11][2][8] The sense is noon: the moment when the sun stands highest, and the hour around it.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Old Florentine texts use it for the heat of noon (quando fue il grande calore nel mezzodì) and Giovanni Villani for the hour of an event in 1326 (all'ora di mezzodì).^[3] Boccaccio's Decameron has in sul mezzodì, “around noon”, when the monks were asleep.^[3] Tommaseo also records it for the south, as a point of the compass, and for the south wind.^[4]

The form is found in Old Italian all over the peninsula, from Lombardy and Venice to Calabria and Sicily, and lives on in many dialects.^[11] Today it is literary or Tuscan, used mostly for the time of day, while mezzogiorno is the common word.^[6][12][8] It is frequent in the names of mountain peaks.^[8]

Timeline

• 1274 – Old Lombard meço dí is recorded.^[11]
• 1282 – Ristoro d'Arezzo writes meçodie.^[2][8]
• About 1334 – Boccaccio's Caccia di Diana has mezzodì written as one word.^[11]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses l'ora di mezzodì.^[3]
• Before 1374 – Petrarch writes a mezzo dì.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary, Tuscan) noon, midday, the same as mezzogiorno, mainly as a time of day: Ci vediamo in piazza verso mezzodì.^{[5][6][7][12][8]}
2. (dated) The south.^[4]
3. (dated) The south wind.^[4]

Related words

• mezzogiorno
• mezzo
• dì
• French midi

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 10, 333
4. ^ a b c d Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c d e f Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 20
12. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)