stamane

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ista mane (“this morning”), a phrase of ista (“this”) and māne (“morning”).^[2][3][4] The old form Old Italian istamane still kept the initial ⟨i-⟩ of the Latin.^[3] GRADIT derives stamani from it with the loss of the first vowel.^[3][5] Zingarelli instead analyses the word as sta, short for questa, and mane.^[6] DEI compares stasera and stanotte, formed the same way.^[7]

Latin māne is the neuter of an adjective meaning “good”, so the word first meant “at a good hour, early”.^[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates stamane and stamani to before 1292, and Nocentini to the beginning of the 14th century.^[6][2] Dante has the shortened staman in the Purgatorio: le quattro chiare stelle / che vedevi staman, “the four bright stars that you saw this morning”.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio uses both stamane and the older istamane.^[9][3] Bembo explained the forms istamane, istasera and istanotte as the ordinary forms with an added i.^[9] Tommaseo already found stamani the more common form, and today stamane is literary.^[9][1][3] Both are mainly Tuscan, where stamani mattina or stamane mattina is also said; elsewhere stamattina is the usual word.^[3][6]

Timeline

• Before 1292 – Stamane is first recorded.^[6]
• 1305–1306 – The form stamani is recorded.^[5]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses stamane and istamane in the Decameron.^[9][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (literary) This morning; a variant of stamani: stamane il treno era in ritardo.^[5][1][6]

Related words

• stamani
• stamattina
• stasera
• stanotte
• mane
• Latin māne

Usage notes

Stamani is the more common form, and stamattina the most usual word outside Tuscany.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
4. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3615
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET