Etymologically
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pranzo

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈpran.d͡zo/, /ˈpran.t͡so/[1]

Forms

pranzo m (plural pranzi)[1] Old and literary Italian also had pranso.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prandium (“late-morning or midday meal”), derived from prandeō (“to have one's morning or midday meal”).[4][5][1] Its original sense must have been “first meal”.[4][6]

Sardinian pranzu, Romanian prânz and Dalmatian prinz continue the same Latin word, and Old French prangier (“to dine”) continues a verb derived from it.[5][7][1] Beside the popular word, Italian has the learned prandio.[8]

The Latin word is usually explained as a compound meaning “first meal”: the first part is Proto-Italic *prāmo- (“first”), from Proto-Indo-European *prh₃-mo-, cognate with Lithuanian pirmas (“first”), and the second the root of edō (“to eat”).[9][5][10] Wiktionary compares Ancient Greek ἄριστον (áriston, “breakfast”) and mentions another proposal for the first part, Proto-Indo-European *preh₂m (“early”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, in the sense “the main meal of the day”: Dopo il pranzo parlò Socrate alli ambasciadori (“after the meal Socrates spoke to the ambassadors”).[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Jacopone da Todi offers a pranzo of black, hard, unleavened bread that not even a dog would gnaw, using the word for the food itself.[2][11] In ordinary use the word named the midday meal, as opposed to cena; in the formal language of invitations and restaurants it can name the evening meal, as opposed to colazione.[2][12] Tommaseo describes it as the larger meal of the day, taken at midday or before nightfall.[11]

It also came to mean a rich meal with many guests, a banquet, as in pranzo di nozze (wedding banquet).[6][3] Pranzetto, a simple meal, is recorded before 1768.[4]

Timeline

  • Late 13th century – The Novellino has pranzo and pranzare.[4]
  • Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses pranzo for the food eaten.[2]
  • Before 1768 – Pranzetto is recorded in Carlo Innocenzo Frugoni.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The main meal of the day, especially the midday meal, lunch: A che ora si mangia il pranzo?[6][13][8]
  2. The food served at that meal: un pranzo leggero.[6][12]
  3. (formal) The evening meal, dinner.[6][13][12]
  4. A banquet, a rich meal with many guests: pranzo di nozze.[6][8][3]
  5. Lunchtime: Ti chiamo dopo pranzo.[13][8][3]

Word family

  • pranzare
  • pranzetto
  • dopopranzo

Usage notes

Sala da pranzo is the dining room.[3][12] Wiktionary gives both /ˈpran.d͡zo/ and /ˈpran.t͡so/.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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, p. 14, 5
  3. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  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 Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ 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