Etymologically
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stagione

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Pronunciation

  • /staˈd͡ʒo.ne/[1]

Forms

stagione f (plural stagioni)[1] Old forms include Old Italian staggione, Old Italian stasone, Old Italian stascione and Old Italian staxone.[2] Verona had stasón in 1487.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin statiō (“a standing still; place, abode”).[4][5][6][1] The Latin noun is formed from stō (“to stand”).[5][1] Nocentini explains the sense “season” from astronomy: it referred to the apparent halts of the Sun in the constellations of the zodiac, which mark the parts of the year.[5] Sabatini and Coletti also refer it to the position of the Sun.[7]

The ⟨gi⟩ in place of the expected Tuscan ⟨zz⟩ points to northern Italy: DELI, Nocentini and Devoto take the word as northern in origin, and Sabatini and Coletti call the treatment of Latin /tj/ Gallo-Romance.[4][5][8][7] DEI notes the word in all dialects, including Friulian and Sardinian.[3] The same Latin word gave the learned stazione and the inherited stazzo and stazzone.[1] Nocentini notes that Spanish estación is a learned word.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Iacopo Mostacci, a poet of the Sicilian school, before 1250, in the sense “each of the four parts of the year”.[4][5] Mostacci writes of a bird that, seeing winter come, forgets its joy and does not like the season (par che la stagione no li piaccia).[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses the word for the weather of a season before 1321, and Iacopone da Todi for a period of life before 1306.[4] Old Italian also used it for “the right time” and for “time, occasion”.[3][9] The agricultural sense, the time of a harvest or of certain work, is recorded in 1805, and the sense “period of an activity” in 1806; in 1873 Tommaseo defines the theatre season.[4] DEI takes the hotel sense as a calque of French saison.[3] In Sicilian and Abruzzese stagione means “summer”, the season par excellence.[3][10]

Panzini thought alta and bassa stagione were of French origin, although the French phrases are recorded later.[4] Un uomo per tutte le stagioni translates the title of Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons (1960); in Italian it has come to mean an opportunist.[4][11] The verb stagionare “to season, mature” is recorded in a Lucca document of 1288.[4] English borrowed stagione for an opera season (1946), and German as Stagione (1838).[12]

Timeline

  • Before 1250 – Iacopo Mostacci uses stagione for a season.[4][5]
  • 1288 – Stagionare appears in a Lucca document.[4]
  • Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses it for a period of life.[4]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for the weather of a season.[4]
  • 1806 – The sense “period of an activity” is recorded in the Milanese press.[4]
  • 1838 – German borrows Stagione for the opera season.[12]
  • 1935 – Lavoratore stagionale is recorded.[4]
  • 1946 – English stagione is first recorded.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. season, each of the four parts of the year marked by the solstices and equinoxes: In montagna si vede bene il passare delle stagioni.[6][11][7]
  2. A period of the year with a certain weather: la stagione delle piogge.[6][11][7]
  3. The time of year for certain farm work or for certain fruits: la stagione delle fragole.[6][11][7]
  4. The period of an activity or of events in culture, sport or tourism: la stagione concertistica, la stagione invernale dello sci.[6][11][7]
  5. (broadcasting) A season of a series.[1]
  6. A period, age, time of life.[6][7]

Word family

  • stagionale
  • stagionare
  • stagionato
  • stagionatura
  • stagionalmente
  • stagionalità

Usage notes

Common phrases are alta stagione and bassa stagione (peak and off season), fuori stagione “out of season”, di stagione “in season” and mezza stagione, spring and autumn as the in-between seasons.[6][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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 Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3614
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 945
  10. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Marcato, Carla (1998), I dialetti italiani: dizionario etimologico, Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c d e f 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 c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it