occasione

Forms

occasione f (plural occasioni)^[1] Old Italian forms include occagione, ocasion, occasone, occasuni and the northern occaxione and ochaxon.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin occāsiō (“a favourable moment, opportunity”), a learned word.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin noun is formed from the supine occāsum of occidō (“to fall down; to set”), from ob- (“before”) and cadō (“to fall”), so that it first named something that “befalls”, a chance event.^[3][6][7][8] Nocentini puts the sense “to happen at the right moment” between “to fall down” and the noun.^[4] The same Latin verb gave occidente, and the Latin root goes back perhaps to Proto-Indo-European *(ḱe-)ḱh₂d- (“to fall”).^[4][9]

The noun inherited by popular speech is cagione “cause”, a doublet of the learned word.^[1][10][11] The learned word is also French occasion and Spanish ocasión.^[4] According to DELI, Latin shifted from “favourable moment” to “reason, cause” fairly late, about 400 AD in Sulpicius Severus, and Saint Jerome used the plural for “pretexts”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is a Viterbo translation of the first half of the 13th century, where the word means “cause, reason”.^[2] DELI's first date is for the sense “favourable chance, opportune moment”, in a 14th-century translation of Livy.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used the word for a cause or reason, in the phrase per occasione di “because of”, for a set of circumstances, for a favourable moment and for an obstacle.^[2] DELI dates the sense “cause, pretext” to the 15th century and “event, circumstance” to Ariosto's Orlando furioso of 1516.^[3] Lorenzo de' Medici wrote that true wisdom lies in waiting for the right moment and using it (aspettare ed usare l'occasione).^[11] Varchi distinguished an occasione, which merely gives the opening, from a cagione, which causes.^[12]

The modern commercial sense is “a bargain”, an item sold at a low price, and d'occasione describes second-hand goods offered cheaply, or verse written for a particular event.^{[5][13][7][14]} The proverb l'occasione fa l'uomo ladro (opportunity makes the thief) is common.^[6][15][7] Derivatives are recent: occasionale from 1652 and occasionare from 1566.^[3] The word passed into Maltese as okkażjoni.^[1]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – A Viterbo translation has the first Italian record.^[2]
• 14th century – A translation of Livy uses it for an opportune moment.^[3]
• 15th century – The Proverbia pseudoiacoponici use it for a cause or pretext.^[3]
• 1516 – Ariosto uses it for an event or circumstance.^[3]
• 1566 – The verb occasionare is first recorded.^[3]
• Before 1652 – Occasionale “fortuitous” is first recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An opportunity, a chance, a favourable moment: Non lasciarti scappare questa occasione.^[5][6][13]
2. A circumstance or event, a particular moment: Per l'occasione aveva comprato una giacca nuova.^[5][13][15]
3. A cause, reason or pretext: Ogni cosa diventa occasione di lite.^[13][15][7]
4. A bargain, an item sold at a reduced price.^{[5][13][15][1]}

Word family

• occasionale
• occasionalmente
• occasionare
• occasionalismo

Related words

• cagione
• occidente
• Latin occasio
• French occasion

Usage notes

Common phrases are all'occasione “if need be”, in occasione di “on the occasion of”, cogliere l'occasione “to seize the opportunity” and d'occasione “second-hand, bargain” or “written for the event”.^{[5][15][7][14]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 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
4. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
15. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli