quaresima

Forms

quaresima f (plural quaresime)^[1] Old Italian forms include quaresema, quaresma, quarexma, quarexema, caresima and quareisema.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *quaresima, a shortened spoken form of Late Latin quadrāgēsima, the Church Latin name of Lent.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin noun is an ellipsis of quadragesima dies (“the fortieth day”) (before Easter), the feminine of Latin quadrāgēsimus (“fortieth”), which is formed from quadrāgintā (“forty”).^[3][6][7][1] In written Latin the noun appears only late, from Jerome on.^[6]

DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance */kuaˈresim-a/ from cognates in nearly every branch.^[6] The word is French carême, Occitan caresma, Catalan coresma, Spanish cuaresma, Portuguese quaresma and Romanian păresimi.^[4][8][9] DELI, following Tagliavini, writes the spoken Latin form with a double consonant, *quarrēsima.^[3] The learned quadragesima is a doublet of the inherited word.^[1][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Sienese Mattasalà of 1233–1243, followed by Florentine and Pisan documents of the 1270s and 1290s.^[2] In northern Italy the word appears in Guido Faba's Bolognese Parlamenti (c. 1243) and in Bonvesin.^[2] From the start it names the Christian fast before Easter.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The Old Italian texts already count Lent as 46 days, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday, and use the word for other fasts as well: a quaresima di san Martino before Christmas, from 12 November, and a quaresima degli apostoli between Ascension and Pentecost.^[2][10] A volgarization of John Chrysostom has quarexma and quarexema for these fasts.^[3][10] The fast also became a figure, the strict opposite of carnival.^[2]

The adjective quaresimale goes back to Genoese quaresemar in the 13th century.^[3] As a noun it became a cycle of Lenten sermons (before 1653) and, in Rome and Florence, a hard biscuit shaped like a letter of the alphabet (1922).^[3] Colloquial Italian says that something tedious is lungo come la quaresima, and calls a tall, gaunt person una quaresima.^[5][11][12] German used Quaresima in the 19th century.^[13]

Timeline

• 1233–1243 – The Sienese Mattasalà has the first Italian record.^[2]
• c. 1243 – Guido Faba uses the word in Bolognese.^[2]
• 13th century – The adjective quaresemar appears in the Anonimo genovese.^[3]
• 14th century – The form quarexma appears in a volgarization of John Chrysostom.^[3]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani writes quaresima.^[3]
• Before 1653 – Quaresimale is used for a cycle of Lenten sermons.^[3]
• 1838 – German Quaresima is recorded.^[13]
• 1922 – The Zingarelli dictionary records quaresimale as a Roman biscuit.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Christianity) Lent: the forty days of penance before Easter, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Thursday or Holy Saturday: Durante la quaresima la nonna non mangiava carne.^{[5][11][14][7]}
2. Any fast kept during the year by Church rule or for penance.^[5][7]
3. (by extension) A time of hardship and privation.^[5][15]
4. (figurative, colloquial) In phrases, something tedious or slow, or a tall, emaciated person: lungo come la quaresima.^[11][12][15]

Word family

• quaresimale
• quaresimalista

Related words

• quadragesima
• quaranta
• Latin quadrāgēsimus

Usage notes

Fare la quaresima is to keep the fast, rompere la quaresima to break it, and mezza quaresima is mid-Lent.^[5][11][15] An old proverb says of an unlucky man e' ti si muor sempre il bue in quaresima (your ox always dies in Lent, when its meat can't be eaten).^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ a b c Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
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 d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET