notturno

Forms

notturno (feminine notturna, masculine plural notturni, feminine plural notturne)^[1] Nocturno is an old form and noturno a dialect one.^[2]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin nocturnus (“of the night”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin adjective comes from noctū (“by night”), a secondary form of the ablative of nox (“night”), with the suffix -urnus on the model of diurnus (“of the day”).^[6][7][1][8] DEI explains the link with the word for “of the day” by an old formula that paired the two adverbs, “by day and by night”.^[9] Devoto instead derives it from an old stem *nokt-r/*nokt-n with traces in Indian and Greek.^[10] The Latin word for “night” goes back to Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts, and the inherited Italian word is notte.^[1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the noun, in Jacopone da Todi (before 1306), for the office of matins, originally sung at night: il primo notturno / è dato allo sturmo / de' martirizzati, “the first nocturn is given to the host of the martyrs”.^[12][13] DEI dates the adjective to the 13th century;^[9][12] DELI's first record of it is the Tuscan Crescenzi, about 1350.^[9][12]

Semantic evolution

Dante writes of la notturna tenebra, “the darkness of the night”, and Petrarch of le notturne viole, where the word means dark in colour.^[2][5][13] The church office was divided into three nocturns, the primo, secondo and terzo notturno.^[13]

In music the notturno was first a piece to be played outdoors at night;^[14][12][5] German borrowed it in 1766, and Lichtenthal recorded it in Italian in 1826.^[14][12][5] From the 19th century it became a short, intimate piece, especially for the piano, like Chopin's, and there is a calque French nocturne.^[5][14] The noun later named a poem of melancholy tone and a picture, photograph or film scene set at night, and today also a night-time radio or television programme.^[5][7][15] Modern Italian uses the adjective for services that run at night, as in farmacia notturna and locale notturno, “nightclub”.^[5][16]

Timeline

• Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses the noun for the night office.^[12][5][3]
• c. 1350 – The Tuscan Crescenzi uses the adjective.^[12]
• 1766 – German borrows Notturno as a musical term.^[14]
• 1826 – Lichtenthal records the musical sense in Italian.^[12][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the night, nocturnal: il fresco notturno del deserto.^[5][16][17]
2. Happening, working or open at night: Ho preso il pullman notturno per Roma.^[5][16][15]
3. Of animals and plants: active at night: le farfalle notturne.^[5][16][17]
4. (literary) Dark in colour.^[5]

Noun

1. (Christianity) A nocturn: one of the parts of the night office of matins.^[5][3][17]
2. (music) A nocturne: a short lyrical piece, especially for piano: un notturno per pianoforte.^[5][7][17]
3. A painting, photograph or film scene set at night.^[5][7][17]
4. A night-time radio or television programme.^[7][15]

Word family

• notturna
• notturnamente
• notturnista
• notturnità

Related words

• nottata
• notte
• diurno
• Latin nocturnus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 594
3. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2605
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
16. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
17. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana