tempo

Forms

tempo m (plural tempi)^[1] Old Italian also had tempu and tièmpo, and the plural forms le tempora and li tempori.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tempus (“time, period”), a neuter noun that was reinterpreted as masculine.^[4][5][1] The word is panromance: French temps, Occitan temps, Catalan temps, Spanish tiempo, Portuguese tempo, Sardinian tempus and Romanian timp.^[4][6] The DÉRom reconstructs a Proto-Romance neuter ⟨*ˈtɛmpus⟩ with the senses “time” and “weather”.^[7]

Latin ⟨tempus⟩ had only the sense of time; the weather was ⟨tempestās⟩, which Sabatini–Coletti takes as the model for the new Romance sense.^[8][9][10] The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[8][9] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *tempos (“stretch, measure”) and Proto-Indo-European *tempos (“stretch”), with a development from “stretch” to “stretch of time”.^[11][1] Others connect it with *temh₁- (“to cut”), as “a section of time”, the root of Ancient Greek τέμνω (témnō, “I cut”).^[1][12][10] Nocentini thinks it the same word as Latin tempus (“temple of the head”), from a root *(s)temb- (“to strike”), referring to the beat of the pulse.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nocentini dates the word to 1065 and Sabatini–Coletti to the 12th century.^[4][10] DELI's earliest example is the phrase d'in un tempo “at once” in the Ritmo laurenziano at the end of the 12th century;^[8] Dante defines time in the Convivio (1304–1308): “Il tempo … è numero di movimento, secondo prima e poi” (time is the number of motion, according to before and after).^[8]

Semantic evolution

From the abstract notion, Old Italian derived the time needed for an action (before 1348, Giovanni Villani), a season with its own character and an epoch (Boccaccio, 1348–1353), the right moment (14th century), and a person's age.^[8] The sense “weather” is recorded about 1350 in a translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi.^[8] Learned uses followed Latin, which had them from Greek chrónos: the tense of a verb (14th century) and a metrical unit.^[8]

Music made tempo the measure of time (before 1565, Varchi) and then the speed of a piece.^[8][13] Sport and entertainment added the half of a match (1955), the time taken in a race (1922) and the part of a film or show (1939–1940).^[8] Ha fatto il suo tempo is a calque of French il a fait son temps, and tempo parziale (1955) and tempo reale are calques of English part time and real time.^[8]

German borrowed Tempo (1608, “the right moment”; 1732 in music), English tempo in fencing (1688) and in music (1724), and French tempo in music (1765).^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1065 – Nocentini's date for the word.^[4]
• End of the 12th century – D'in un tempo “at once” in the Ritmo laurenziano.^[8]
• 1304–1308 – Dante defines time in the Convivio.^[8]
• About 1350 – The sense “weather”, in a translation of Crescenzi.^[8]
• Before 1565 – Tempo as a musical measure, in Benedetto Varchi.^[8]
• 1724 – English tempo in music.^[14][13]
• 1955 – Tempo parziale is calqued on English part time, tempo for a half of a match.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. time, the continuous succession of moments: col tempo tutto si dimentica.^[5][15][10]
2. A length of time, the time needed for something: quanto tempo ci vuole per arrivare?, oggi non ho un minuto di tempo.^[5][10]
3. A period, an age, an epoch: ai tempi dei nonni, un tempo (once, formerly).^[5][15][9]
4. The right moment: è tempo di raccogliere le olive.^[15][16]
5. The weather: che tempo fa domani?^[10][5][1]
6. (grammar) The tense of a verb.^[5][1]
7. (music) The tempo or measure of a piece; a movement of a symphony or sonata.^[8][1][16]
8. (sport) A half or period of a match; the time recorded in a race.^[8][5]
9. A part of a film or show; a stroke of an engine cycle.^[8][1]

Word family

• maltempo
• tempaccio
• tempismo
• tempista
• attempato
• contrattempo
• frattempo
• contempo
• buontempone

Related words

• contemporaneo
• estemporaneo
• temporale
• temporaneo
• temporeggiare
• tempesta
• tempia
• Latin tempus
• English tempo

Usage notes

Common phrases are a tempo pieno (full-time), nel frattempo or nello stesso tempo (meanwhile, at the same time), per tempo (early), dar tempo al tempo (to be patient) and ammazzare il tempo (to kill time).^[5][16][17] DELI finds the origin of al tempo che Berta filava hard to establish despite many anecdotal explanations.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 845
3. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3747
4. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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 Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
10. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
14. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
16. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
17. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli