regione

Forms

regione f (plural regioni)^[1] The GDLI records the old spelling Old Italian reggione.^[2]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin regiō (“direction, line; boundary; district”), from regō (“to direct, guide”) with the suffix -iō.^{[3][4][5][6][1]} According to DELI the Latin word first meant the straight lines the augurs drew across the sky to divide it into parts, then the boundaries of a piece of land, and finally the land within them.^[3][7][8] Devoto describes the same development from “line of demarcation” to “territory between such lines”.^[9][10]

The inherited Italian form is rione “district of a city”.^{[3][4][11][1]} The Latin word also survives in Corsican arechjóne “estate” and in Old French royon.^[12][3][13] The learned French région and Spanish región come from the same Latin word.^[4][13] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to stretch, direct”).^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Latini before 1294, for a part of the earth, the sky or space with features of its own.^[3] He writes of the sea turning north per una regione / dove lo mar non piglia / terra che sette miglia (“through a region where the sea takes no more than seven miles of land”).^[2]

Semantic evolution

By about 1350 the Italian translation of Crescenzi used regione for a stretch of territory, and Davanzati even called the districts of Rome regioni, the sense the inherited rione has.^[3] The anatomical sense, a part of the body marked off for description, is dated before 1468, in Savonarola.^[3] DELI shows that the 14th-century example the dictionaries quote is one of Redi's forgeries.^[3] The figurative sense “field, domain” is in Tommaseo–Bellini in 1872.^[3]

In the administrative sense Spaventa used it before 1893 for a self-governing body that acts for the State as well as for itself.^[3] The adjective regionale is dated 1857 in its modern use, and regionalismo (1878) first meant an excessive attachment to one's own region.^[3] The Constitution made the regions autonomous bodies with legislative powers.^[4][10] DELI discusses the recent and debated construction Regione Lombardia.^[3]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Latini uses regione.^[3]
• About 1350 – The translation of Crescenzi uses it for a territory.^[3]
• Before 1468 – Savonarola uses it in anatomy.^[3]
• 1857 – Regionale is recorded in its modern sense.^[3]
• 1872 – Tommaseo–Bellini record the sense “field, domain”.^[3]
• 1878 – Regionalismo is first recorded.^[3]
• Before 1893 – Spaventa uses regione for an administrative body.^[3]
• 1970 – Regionalizzare is borrowed from French.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (geography) A region: a large part of the earth's surface marked by its own features of relief, climate, plants and animals: una regione desertica.^{[5][10][7][1]}
2. (astronomy) A part of the sky or of space.^[5][7][15]
3. A wide territory or area generally: le regioni orientali del paese.^[5][10][15]
4. A territory with its own history, culture or language: una regione di lingua ladina.^[5][7][16]
5. In Italy, each of the autonomous territorial bodies with their own legislative and administrative powers, also as an invariable adjective in ente regione.^{[5][10][15][1]}
6. The regional administration and its offices: lavora in Regione.^[5][10][7]
7. (military) Each of the military districts into which the national territory is divided.^[5][10][17]
8. (history) Each of the districts of ancient and medieval Rome.^[5][10][15]
9. (anatomy) Each of the areas into which the body is divided for description: regione lombare.^{[5][15][16][1]}
10. (mathematics) A subset of a figure.^[15][16]
11. (figurative) A field or domain: le regioni della fantasia.^[5][15][16]

Word family

• regionale
• regionalismo
• regionalista
• regionalistico
• regionalizzare
• corregionale
• sottoregione
• subregione

Related words

• rione
• reggere
• Latin regio

Usage notes

Regione a statuto speciale is a region with wider autonomy, as against a regione a statuto ordinario.^[10][15][1] Written with a capital, Regione often means the regional administration.^[7][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
8. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3224
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ a b Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
16. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
17. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana