novembre

Forms

novembre m (uncountable)^[1] Old Italian and dialect forms include Old Italian novebre, Old Italian novenbre, Old Italian novembrio, Old Italian novembro and Old Italian nuembru.^[2][3][4] The form novembrio appears in the Vita di Cola di Rienzo.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin novembrem, the accusative of the Latin name of the month, short for a phrase with mēnsis (“month”).^[6][7][1][8] The name is derived from novem (“nine”), because November was the ninth month of the old Roman calendar, which began the year with March.^{[6][9][3][10]}

The same word is French novembre, Occitan novembre, Catalan novembre, Spanish noviembre, Portuguese novembro and Romanian noiembrie.^[9][11][12] Meyer-Lübke also sets up a variant Vulgar Latin *novembrius, the source of Old Venetian and Old Spanish novembrio.^[11]

How the Latin adjective was formed is not settled.^[9][1] Nocentini derives it from a Latin *novem-sris, with the regular change of the cluster /-sr-/ to /-br-/, as in dicembre.^[9] Wiktionary considers a haplology of an older Latin *nove(m)-mēnsris “of the ninth month”, with the word for month in its second part, but marks this as uncertain.^[1] The numeral goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁neun (“nine”).^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Florentine account book of 1211, already with the sense “the eleventh month of the year”.^[6][2][7] The TLIO defines the Old Italian word as the eleventh month in the styles of dating that began the year at the Nativity or the Circumcision.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian texts show the month in dates and proverbial lines: Dante tells Florence that its laws are so finely spun that what is spun in October does not last to mid-November (ch’a mezzo novembre / non giugne quel che tu d’ottobre fili).^[4][14] Giovanni Villani dates the arrival of French horsemen in Florence to 20 November 1324.^[4][14]

The days of the month carry fixed meanings in Italian usage: 1 November is All Saints, 2 November the commemoration of the dead, and 4 November the anniversary of the armistice of 1918 with Austria-Hungary, kept as the day of national unity and of the armed forces.^[4][15] The adjective novembrino “of November” is first recorded before 1930.^[6]

Timeline

• 1211 – Novembre appears in a Florentine account book.^[6][2]
• 13th century – The form novebre is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses a mezzo novembre in the Purgatorio.^[4][14]
• Before 1930 – The adjective novembrino is first recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. November, the eleventh month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, with thirty days: Il raccolto delle olive finisce a novembre.^{[7][8][16][1]}

Word family

• novembrino

Related words

• dicembre
• nove
• Latin novem

Usage notes

The month name is written with a small letter.^[7][1] The abbreviations are nov. and nov.^[1] Besides the standard /noˈvɛm.bre/, a regional pronunciation with a close /e/ is heard.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
5. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 703
6. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
15. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
16. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli