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orario

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Pronunciation

Forms

orario (feminine oraria, masculine plural orari, feminine plural orarie)[1] As a noun: orario m (plural orari).[1]

Etymology

The adjective is borrowed from Medieval Latin horārius (“of the hours”), a learned word formed from hōra (“hour”).[2][3][4][5][6] Wiktionary takes it from Late Latin hōrārium;[1] DEI notes that the Latin noun meant “clock”, and compares French horaire (1532).[7] The inherited descendant of the Latin noun is ora, and oriolo, an old word for “clock”, belongs to the same family.[1][8]

The noun, “timetable”, is the adjective used as a noun (1848, according to Nocentini and Devoto–Oli), like the French noun (1868).[3][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest dates for the adjective are before 1574 (Cornelio Musso) and 1608–1619, when Paolo Sarpi writes of the preci orarie of the breviary, the prayers of the canonical hours.[2] Galileo, in the Dialogue (1632), measures the movements of the Earth in tempi orari, in hours.[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Francesco Redi (before 1698) writes of the orarie mutazioni of an illness, its changes from hour to hour.[2][10] Medical writers also called orarie fevers and fruits that last only an hour or a short time.[9]

The noun was born in the age of schools, railways and offices.[2][3] Melchiorre Cesarotti speaks of an orario scolastico in 1797, and in 1848 Ugolini noted that the noun was missing from the dictionary although it was in use.[2] Twentieth-century technology added velocità oraria, speed per hour (1905), and segnale orario, the time signal broadcast by radio (1939–1940).[2] The modern dictionaries record many fixed phrases: fuso orario (time zone), disco orario (parking disc), senso orario (clockwise), orario continuato and orario flessibile (working hours without a break, flexitime).[4][5][11]

Timeline

  • Before 1574 – Cornelio Musso uses the adjective.[2]
  • 1608–1619 – Paolo Sarpi writes of the preci orarie of the breviary.[2]
  • 1642 – GRADIT's date of first record.[4]
  • Before 1698 – Francesco Redi writes of the hourly changes of an illness.[2]
  • 1797 – Melchiorre Cesarotti uses orario scolastico.[2]
  • 1848 – The noun “timetable” is recorded.[3][5]
  • 1905 – Velocità oraria is noted as a new phrase.[2]
  • 1939–1940 – Segnale orario “time signal” is recorded.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Relating to the hour as a unit of time, or to time in general: la tabella oraria.[4][5][11]
  2. Happening every hour; calculated by the hour: Il compenso orario è basso.[4][5][11]
  3. (senso orario) clockwise.[4][5][12]
  4. (astronomy) In angolo orario and cerchio orario, referring to the hour circle of a star.[5][11]

Noun

  1. The hours at which an activity takes place; working or opening hours: L'orario di apertura del museo è cambiato.[4][5][6]
  2. A timetable, a schedule of set hours: l'orario delle visite.[4][5]
  3. A printed timetable of a transport service: Ho controllato l'orario dei pullman.[4][6]

Word family

  • antiorario
  • extraorario

Usage notes

In orario means “on time”, fuori orario “outside working hours”.[5][4] A minor homograph, orario “priest's stole” (from before 1600), is a learned word from Medieval Latin ōrārium, also Church Latin, a cloth for wiping the face, from Latin ōs (“face, mouth”).[4][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2666
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 12
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana