migliaio

Forms

migliaio m (plural migliaia f)^[1] The plural is feminine, le migliaia.^[2][3][4] An archaic and central regional form is migliaro, and the GDLI also records the rare plurals migliai and migliara.^[2][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mīliārium (“a group of a thousand; a mile; a milestone”), from the adjective mīliārius (“of a thousand”), formed from mīlia, the plural of mīlle (“thousand”).^{[6][7][8][9][10]} Its sounds show the regular Tuscan development of the Latin word.^[11] The Latin word lives on in French millier, Occitan milhar and Portuguese milheiro, and in Old Spanish as a word for a milestone.^[7][10]

De Vaan explains the Latin numeral as a feminine meaning “having one thousand”, from the word for “one” and a noun meaning “heap”, akin to Ancient Greek χίλιοι (khī́lioi, “thousand”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Bono Giamboni, who died before 1292, with the old plural migliara: Cento migliara glie ne stavano dintorno (“A hundred thousand stood around him”).^[6][5] Dante has the plural migliaia (1313–1319), and the singular migliaio first appears about 1340 in Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, who notes that salted sturgeon backs are sold by the thousand, mille appunto per uno migliaio (“exactly a thousand to the migliaio”).^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word already meant “a thousand” and “about a thousand” in Old Italian, and in the plural a great number: Dante's migliaia di lunari are “thousands of months”.^[6][5] It also meant a mile, a thousand paces, in a line of Dante: Quanto di qua per un migliaio si conta (“as much as is counted a mile on this side”).^[8][13] In the Middle Ages and after it was a measure: Medieval Latin miliarum was a weight at Venice in 1255, and before the metric system a migliaio was a thousand pounds in Tuscany and a thousand square paces at Venice.^[14][13]

In modern use it is the thousands place of a number, a run of a thousand copies in publishing, and above all an approximate or hyperbolic number, as in a migliaia, “by the thousand”.^{[8][2][15][4]} A proverb, chi erra nelle decine erra nelle migliaia, urges care even in small things.^[4]

Timeline

• 1255 – Medieval Latin miliarum is a measure of weight at Venice.^[14]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses the plural migliara.^[6][8]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses the plural migliaia.^[6]
• c. 1340 – Francesco Balducci Pegolotti uses the singular migliaio.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A set of a thousand units: Lo stadio contiene venti migliaia di posti.^{[8][2][16][3]}
2. About a thousand: Alla festa c'era un migliaio di invitati.^{[8][2][4][15]}
3. (hyperbolic, especially in the plural) A very great number: Ricevette migliaia di messaggi.^{[8][2][16][3]}
4. (mathematics) The thousands place in a number written in the decimal system.^[8][2][4]
5. (publishing) A run of a thousand copies of a book.^[2][15]
6. (archaic) A mile, a thousand paces.^{[8][2][16][3]}
7. (historical) An old unit of weight or area that varied from place to place.^{[8][2][3][13]}

Related words

• miglio
• miliardo
• milione
• mille
• centinaio

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 10, 380
6. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2456
15. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse