poscia

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin posteā (“afterwards”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin adverb is formed from post (“after”) and eā (“this (ablative feminine)”), literally “after this”.^[2][5][6][1] Devoto notes that it keeps the old construction of the preposition with the ablative, which the accusative later replaced on the model of ante.^[7]

The Italian form goes back to a spoken *postja, with the same change as musteus to moscio and ostium to uscio.^[7] Perugia had poscio in Old Italian, and Logudorese has pustis.^[8][9] French puis, Occitan pueis and Catalan puix go back instead to *postius, and Spanish pues continues the preposition itself.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Zingarelli date the first record before 1243.^[3][5] DEI gives Dante as its first author, with the sense “afterwards”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian had many regional forms, among them northern possa, posa and poxo.^[10] The word was common in the poets: Dante's Ugolino ends his story with “then, more than grief, fasting prevailed” (Poscia, più che ’l dolor, poté ’l digiuno).^[5][11]

Followed by che, it became a conjunction, first “after” and then “since”: Boccaccio writes poscia che voi mi promettete di pregare Iddio per me, “since you promise me to pray to God for me”.^[4][12] DEI also records the old senses “although” and “even though”.^[9] By the 19th century Tommaseo found the word alive only in writing, and it is now archaic and literary.^[13][4][3]

Timeline

• Before 1243 – First record.^[3][5]
• About 1306–1321 – Dante uses poscia and poscia che.^[9][11]
• 1861 – Tommaseo describes the word as living only in writing.^[13]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (archaic, literary) afterwards, then, later: Poscia tornò a casa.^{[3][4][12][1]}

Conjunction

1. (archaic, literary; followed by che) After, once: poscia che introduces a clause of time.^[4][12][1]
2. (archaic, literary; followed by che) since, because: poscia che introduces a clause of cause.^[4][12][1]

Word family

• posciaché

Related words

• poi
• Latin postea

Usage notes

Poscia can follow da or di: da poscia, di poscia, also written diposcia.^[10][11] The conjunction is also written as one word, posciaché.^[14][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3033
10. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
11. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli