solatio

Forms

solatio (feminine solatia, masculine plural solatii, feminine plural solatie)^[1] The old form is solativo.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *solatīvus (“exposed to the sun”), which took the place of classical Latin sōlātus (“struck by the sun”), from sōl (“sun”).^[5][6][7][1] Devoto describes the ending as a durative extension and the loss of the -v- between vowels as total, as in bacio from Vulgar Latin *opacivus and rio from Latin rivus, and in restio and stantio.^[8] Wiktionary also analyses it as sole with the suffixes -ato and -io.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the Italian translation of Valerius Maximus of the first half of the 14th century, with the sense “exposed to the sun, facing south”: there Aeschylus goes out of the city walls and sits “in a sunny place” (in uno luogo solatio).^[5][9] Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the word to the 15th century, DEI citing Lorenzo de' Medici and GRADIT a date before 1492.^{[6][10][2][7]}

Semantic evolution

The noun, “a place facing south”, is first recorded before 1446 in Giovanni Gherardi.^[5] Writers on farming used the word with its opposite bacìo, a shady, north-facing place: a farming writer quoted by Tommaseo notes that some plants form buds in sunny places and not in shady ones.^[11][3] D'Annunzio set the two side by side in Quello è bacìo e quello è solatìo.^[4]

Today the word is Tuscan and literary, and Pascoli's line Romagna solatia, dolce paese is its best-known use; the phrase a solatio means “facing the sun, to the south”.^[4][12][13]

Timeline

• First half of the 14th century – Solatio “sunny” in the Italian Valerius Maximus.^[5][9]
• Before 1446 – Giovanni Gherardi uses it as a noun, “a place facing south”.^[5]
• 15th century – Lorenzo de' Medici writes of a vigna solatia.^[2][11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary, Tuscan) sunny, exposed to the sun because it faces south: un pendio solatio.^[7][10][4]

Noun

1. A place or side that faces south and gets the sun.^[7][3][12]

Related words

• sole
• assolato
• soleggiato
• bacio

Usage notes

The phrase a solatio means facing the sun, towards the south; its opposite is a bacìo.^[3][11][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3531
3. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 413
9. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli