negozio

Forms

negozio m (plural negozi)^[1] An older form is negocio.^[2]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin negōtium (“business, occupation”), which Wiktionary calls possibly semi-learned.^[3][4][1] The Latin noun is formed from nec (“not”) and ōtium (“leisure”), literally “lack of leisure”.^[3][4][5][1] Wiktionary mentions that it may be a calque of Ancient Greek ἀσχολία (askholía, “lack of leisure; business”), though a calque would have been expected to give a form with the negative prefix in-.^[1]

Learned forms of the same word are French négoce, Spanish negocio, Portuguese negócio and Catalan negoci;^[4][6] Körting held that it is a learned word everywhere.^[4][6] DELI takes negoziazione to be Spanish negociación (1490).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is Dante, before 1321, in the sense “business, commercial undertaking”: in Paradiso XI he lists those who live by theft and those by civil negozio, public affairs.^[3][2][7]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Renaissance Italian negozio meant any business or affair, an activity or occupation, and also a task entrusted to someone, as in Ariosto and Petrarch.^[8][9][2] The sense “premises where goods are sold” is recorded from Lippi, before 1665, and according to DEI the word took the place of bottega for a shop in the second half of the 19th century.^[3][10] Zingarelli distinguishes negozio from bottega, now mostly a small shop or a craftsman's workshop.^[11]

In law negozio giuridico is a legal transaction, an act by which a person regulates their own interests with others.^[9][11][12] In Tuscany the word can also mean any object or contraption, and bel negozio! is an ironic “a fine business!”.^[11][9]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses the derivative negoziale.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses negozio “business”.^[3]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses negoziare “to trade”.^[3]
• Before 1665 – Lippi uses negozio for a shop.^[3]
• Second half of the 19th century – Negozio replaces bottega as the usual word for a shop.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shop, store: Hanno aperto un negozio di biciclette sotto casa.^[8][9][7][1]
2. A commercial transaction, a deal: Con quella vendita ha fatto un ottimo negozio.^[8][9][11]
3. (law) A legal transaction (negozio giuridico).^{[9][11][12][1]}
4. (literary) Activity, occupation.^[8][7][12]
5. (archaic) A task, an errand.^[8][7][12]
6. (humorous, Tuscan) A thing, a contraption: E questo che negozio sarebbe?^[8][11][13]

Word family

• negoziante
• negoziare
• negoziato
• negoziatore
• negoziazione
• negoziale
• negoziabile

Related words

• ozio
• bottega
• Latin negōtium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
7. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
9. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2564
11. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli