natale

Forms

natale m (plural natali)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nātālis (“of birth”), an adjective in -ālis from nātus (“born”), the past participle of nāscor (“to be born”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The name of the feast comes from Christian Latin, where the adjective was used alone for a phrase meaning “the birthday of Christ”.^[3][1] The GDLI treats the adjective as a learned word.^[6] DEI calls the word western pan-Romance: the feast is French Noël, Occitan Nadal, and Catalan Nadal.^[7][3][8] The ⟨o⟩ of the French word, first found in the Polyptych of Irminon, has not been explained.^[8]

Latin nāscor, earlier ⟨gnāscor⟩, goes back to Proto-Italic *gnāsk-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *ǵnh₁-sk-e/o- (“to be born”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The feast of Christmas is the first sense on record, at the end of the 13th century in the Novellino;^[2] Florentine texts of 1277–1296 already have pasqua di Natale.^[2] Zingarelli dates the word to 1296.^[10] The sense “birthday” is found early in the 14th century, in an Italian version of Valerius Maximus.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective “of one's birth”, as in terra natale “native land”, is recorded from Boccaccio (about 1336); in the Filocolo he writes of a natal sito, a birthplace.^[2][11] The plural natali “birth, descent” appears in Pico della Mirandola (before 1494), and Gasparo Gozzi used it for lineage in the 18th century.^[2][7] The Natale di Roma is the anniversary of the city's traditional foundation on 21 April 753 BC.^[4][10]

In some Alpine Lombard dialects and in Sardinia the word came to name the month of December: Ticinese denadà, Sassarese naddali.^[7][8] DEI notes that Tuscany long preferred pasqua di ceppo for the feast.^[7] Proverbs and phrases include Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi “Christmas with your family, Easter with whoever you like” and durare da Natale a Santo Stefano “to last no time at all”.^[5][10] Babbo Natale is Father Christmas.^[12][5]

Timeline

• 1277–1296 – Pasqua di Natale appears in Florentine texts.^[2]
• Late 13th century – Natale “Christmas” appears in the Novellino.^[2]
• Early 14th century – Natale “birthday” is recorded.^[2]
• c. 1336 – Boccaccio uses the adjective natale.^[2]
• 1354 – Nocentini's date for the name of the feast.^[3]
• Before 1494 – Pico della Mirandola uses natali “birth”.^[2]
• 16th century – Natalizio is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Natale: Christmas, the Christian feast of the birth of Jesus on 25 December; the Christmas season: Per Natale torniamo dai nonni.^{[4][12][13][1]}
2. (literary) Birthday; its anniversary: il Natale di Roma, the anniversary of Rome's foundation.^{[4][12][10][1]}
3. natali (plural): birth, origin, descent: un uomo di umili natali, dare i natali, to be the birthplace of.^[4][13][14]

Adjective

1. native, of one's birth: Tornò nel suo paese natale.^{[4][12][13][1]}
2. (rare) Of Christmas, the same as natalizio.^[4][10]

Word family

• natalizio
• natalità
• natalino
• prenatale
• perinatale
• postnatale

Related words

• nato
• nascere
• nativo
• natio
• Latin nātālis
• French Noël

Usage notes

The feast is written with a capital, Natale; the other senses are lowercase.^[12][10][5] Buon Natale! is the usual Christmas greeting.^[4][1] Natale is also a male given name.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 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 c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
6. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 212
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2551
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e 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 Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli