Etymologically
Log in

sonno

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 20:48. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈson.no/, /ˈsɔn.no/[1]

Forms

sonno m (plural sonni)[1] Old forms include sómno, sómpno and sono, and the dialect form suónno.[2] Old Italian also had plurals le sonna and le sónnora.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin somnus (“sleep”).[3][4][5][1] The word is pan-Romance: French somme, Occitan som, Catalan son, Spanish sueño, Logudorese sonnu, Romanian somn and Dalmatian samno.[4][6][1] In Piedmontese, Milanese and Logudorese the descendants also mean “dream”, and in Venetian, Sicilian and Neapolitan “temple of the head”.[6]

The Latin noun continues Proto-Italic *swepnos, from Proto-Indo-European *swépnos (“sleep”), a derivative of the root *swep- (“to sleep”), which also gives Latin sopor and sōpiō (“to put to sleep”).[7][4][1] Related nouns are Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos), Sanskrit स्वप्न (svápna, “sleep, dream”), Lithuanian sãpnas (“dream”), Old Church Slavonic сънъ (sŭnŭ), Old Irish súan and Old Norse svefn.[7][4][8] De Vaan explains the Latin vowel from a Proto-Italic variant with /o/, as in the Celtic forms.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Vita nuova (1292–1294), where a sweet sleep comes over the poet as he thinks of Beatrice (mi sopragiunse uno soave sonno) and he sees a vision.[3][2] The sense “drowsiness, the need to sleep” appears in the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century.[3]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used the word for a dream, as in Dante's mal sonno that tore the veil of the future, a sense that is now only literary.[5][9][1] The figurative senses of stillness, the silence of the night, and mental torpor (il sonno della ragione) developed from the main sense.[5][10] Il sonno eterno is death.[11][10]

Medicine gave malattia del sonno (sleeping sickness) and terapia del sonno, and the jargon of Freemasonry uses sonno for a member's withdrawal from activity.[11][5] Learned derivatives from Latin came in early: sonnolento (1313–1319) and sonnolenza (before 1321) are both in Dante, and sonnifero, first an adjective (before 1503), is a sleeping drug from before 1529.[3]

Timeline

  • 1292–1294 – Dante uses sonno in the Vita nuova.[3]
  • Late 13th century – The Novellino uses sonno for drowsiness.[3]
  • 1313–1319 – Dante uses sonnolento.[3]
  • Before 1386 – Sonnellino, a nap, is recorded.[3]
  • Before 1529 – Castiglione uses sonnifero for a sleeping drug.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. sleep, the periodic state of rest in which consciousness and will are suspended: Il bambino parla nel sonno.[5][11][9]
  2. (colloquial) A spell of sleep: fare un lungo sonno.[5][10]
  3. sleepiness, the need or wish to sleep: Dopo pranzo mi viene sempre sonno.[5][11][9]
  4. (figurative) Stillness, quiet, especially at night.[5][9][1]
  5. (figurative) Inertia, torpor of the mind.[5]
  6. (literary) A dream.[5][9][1]

Word family

  • sonnellino
  • sonnifero
  • sonnolento
  • sonnolenza
  • sonnacchioso
  • sonnecchiare
  • assonnato
  • insonne
  • insonnia

Usage notes

Common phrases are avere sonno (to be sleepy), prendere sonno (to fall asleep), cascare dal sonno (to be dropping with sleep), dormire sonni tranquilli (to have nothing to worry about) and colpo di sonno (a sudden attack of drowsiness).[5][11][10] Sonno is sleep and sogno a dream.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 19, 410
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 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. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier