Etymologically
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stazione

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Pronunciation

  • /statˈt͡sjo.ne/[1]

Forms

stazione f or (archaic) m (plural stazioni)[1] Old forms include Old Italian stacione, Old Italian stazzione and Old Italian statione.[2][1] In old Italian the word could also be masculine.[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin statio (“a standing still; post, station; abode”), a noun of action from stō (“to stand”) with the suffix -tiō.[5][6][7][8][1] The railway sense follows English station, used for railways from 1830.[5][9][3]

The inherited outcomes of the Latin word are stagione (“season”), stazzo (“sheepfold”) and stazzone, and this noun is their learned doublet.[1][10][11] The Latin word was also taken into French station and Spanish estación.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Domenico Cavalca, who died in 1342, with the sense “halt, stop; stopping place”.[5][7] DEI dates the word to the 13th century.[12] A volgarizzamento of Livy tells how the consul returned to his station with great booty after a victory.[2]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian used stazione for a lodging, a guard post and the visit to a church to gain an indulgence, and in the 16th century Daniele Barbaro used it for a place where ships lie at anchor.[12][4] Astronomy called a stazione the point where a planet seems to stand still, as Francesco da Buti says before 1406 of the related adjective stazionario.[5][3]

The railways brought the main modern sense: a report of 1837 on the line from Venice to Milan speaks of porters at the two main stazioni, and stazione ferroviaria is recorded in 1874.[5] Tommaseo (1873) has the Stations of the Cross and the scientific station, the resort sense is recorded in 1891, and stazione marittima in 1937.[5] Later the word covered radio and television stations, a police or carabinieri post and the service station.[7][10]

Timeline

  • Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses stazione for a stopping place.[5][7]
  • 16th century – Daniele Barbaro uses it for an anchorage.[12]
  • 1837 – A report on the Venice–Milan railway uses it for railway stations.[5]
  • 1873 – Tommaseo records the Stations of the Cross and the scientific station.[5]
  • 1874 – Stazione ferroviaria is recorded.[5]
  • 1891 – The sense “resort” is recorded.[5]
  • 1937 – Stazione marittima is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A station, the buildings and facilities where trains, buses or other vehicles stop to take on and set down passengers and goods; used alone, the railway station: Ci vediamo davanti alla stazione.[7][9][10]
  2. (rare) A halt, a stop; a stopping place.[7][13]
  3. A resort, a place for holidays or cures: stazione sciistica, stazione termale.[7][10][13]
  4. (Christianity) Each of the fourteen Stations of the Cross.[7][9][10]
  5. A plant for sending or receiving signals; a radio station, a channel: Cambia stazione, questa musica non mi piace.[7][10]
  6. A facility for a particular service: stazione meteorologica, stazione di servizio.[10][13]
  7. The local post of the carabinieri or the police.[10]
  8. (archaeology) A site of prehistoric settlement, (biogeography) a place where a species lives.[7][10]
  9. (astronomy) The point where a planet appears to stand still before reversing its motion.[9][3]

Word family

  • capostazione
  • sottostazione
  • autostazione
  • stazionare
  • stazionamento
  • stazionario
  • stazionale

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  4. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  12. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3623
  13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli