Etymologically
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natale

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Pronunciation

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

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