taverna

Forms

taverna f (plural taverne)^[1] The old and literary form is taberna.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin taberna (“hut, dwelling; shop, inn”).^[4][5][6][1] The same Latin word gave French taverne, Occitan taverna, Catalan taverna, Spanish taberna and Portuguese taberna, and it was borrowed into Welsh.^[5][7]

The ancients connected it with trabs (“beam”), as a building of beams.^[4][5] De Vaan accepts this: the Latin word would be a *traberna (“wooden shed”) with the first ⟨r⟩ lost by dissimilation.^[8][1] Nocentini finds that form purely hypothetical and does not exclude the root of tabula (“plank”).^[5] DEI and Devoto see in the ending -erna a pre-Latin, Mediterranean type, as in caverna and cisterna, and Zingarelli asks whether it is Etruscan.^{[4][9][10][11]}

Taverniere comes from tabernārius through Old French tavernier, recorded about 1200, while tavernaro and tavernaio come straight from the Latin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in the Venetian Proverbia que dicuntur super natura feminarum, where the word names a place open to the public that serves drink and sometimes food.^[3] DELI dates the sense “inn, tavern” from Brunetto Latini, before 1294.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also used taverna as a plain word for a shop, for a butcher's shop, and for a soldiers' hostel in antiquity.^[3] A Venetian record of 1283 uses it at sea for the place on a galley where provisions were sold.^[9] Dante's line “ne la chiesa coi santi, e in taverna coi ghiottoni” (“in church with the saints, and in the tavern with the gluttons”) became a proverb.^[12][13] Angiolieri wanted only three things, “la donna, la taverna e 'l dado” (“women, the tavern and dice”).^[2]

The word long kept a bad name: the 1922 Zingarelli has it for a low dive.^[4] The more recent sense of a rustic, sometimes fashionable restaurant or night spot (1960) was taken over from the use English and Americans made of tavern, itself a word from French.^[4][14] The diminutive tavernetta (1970) also names a basement room fitted out in rustic style for parties.^[4][11] Many place names come from taverna, such as Tavernelle and Tavernola, and a Tabernule is recorded in 793.^[12][9][7] German Zabern has the same source.^[12][9][7] Middle High German borrowed the word as taverne, and German Taverne came back in the 20th century for an Italian restaurant.^[1][15]

Timeline

• 793 – The place name Tabernule is recorded in Tuscany.^[12]
• 13th century – The Venetian Proverbia use taverna.^[3]
• 13th century – Tavernaro appears in the Judaeo-Italian elegy.^[4]
• 1283 – The word names a galley's provision store in Venice.^[9]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses taverna for an inn.^[4]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses taverniere.^[4]
• 1922 – The sense “low dive” is recorded in Zingarelli.^[4]
• 1960 – The sense “rustic restaurant or night spot” appears.^[4][15]
• 1970 – Tavernetta is recorded.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (often derogatory) A low tavern or osteria, often with a poor reputation; a bettola: canzoni da taverna.^[6][16][14]
2. (by extension) A dirty, cramped place.^[6][17]
3. A restaurant, trattoria or night spot furnished in rustic style.^[6][16][14]
4. A basement room in a house, often furnished in rustic style, for parties and dinners; a tavernetta.^[11][18]
5. (archaic) A shop.^[6][16][11]

Word family

• tavernetta
• taverniere
• tavernaio
• tavernella

Related words

• tabernacolo
• Latin taberna
• English tavern

Usage notes

Da taverna means vulgar or coarse, of language or manners.^[6][16][18]

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 Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3732
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 980
13. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
14. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
16. ^ 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
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
18. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana