veglia

Forms

veglia f (plural veglie)^[1] The old and popular Tuscan form is Old Italian vegghia, and the GDLI also lists the old forms Old Italian viglia and Old Italian vìlia.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is from Italian vegliare (“to stay awake, keep watch”), a noun made from the verb.^{[5][6][7][8][1]} Nocentini dates the noun to 1306–1308.^[9]

DELI takes the verb from Old Occitan velhar, which continues Latin vigilō (“to stay awake, keep watch”).^[2] The native Tuscan form is Old Italian vegghiare, which DELI derives through a parallel Vulgar Latin *vigulāre, from vigul, a form found in 3rd-century inscriptions in place of vigil (“awake, watchful”).^[2] This form also gave the old noun vegghia.^[2] Nocentini instead calls the verb the popular outcome of the Latin word, with a development of the northern type.^[9] The same verb is French veiller, Occitan velhar, Catalan vetllar, Spanish velar, Portuguese vigiar, Sardinian bizare and Romanian veghea.^[9][10]

DEI adds that the noun may also rest on Vulgar Latin vigliae, a spoken form of Latin vigiliae recorded in inscriptions.^[11] Meyer-Lübke lists the Italian noun, with the senses “night watch” and “evening entertainment”, beside French veille (“eve of a feast”) among the derivatives of the Latin verb.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are of the old form vegghia, in the 14th-century Italian version of Gregory the Great and in Boccaccio, and of veglia in the 14th-century Trattato del governo della famiglia, all with the sense “the act of staying awake”.^[2] The Gregory text speaks of seeing snares laid against a man in sonno ed in vegghia, “asleep and awake”.^[3][12]

Semantic evolution

Stare a veglia, “to stay awake”, is recorded in Berni before 1535, and the sense “a span of the hours meant for sleep spent awake, for insomnia, work or study” in Daniello Bartoli in 1658.^[2] Tommaseo records the Tuscan proverb La speranza è un sogno della veglia, “hope is a dream of the waking”.^[12]

The social sense, an evening of company that lasts late into the night, is in the dictionaries from 1857, but DELI notes that the custom and the word are much older in the sense of a family gathering: Bibbiena used it in the prologue of the Calandria in 1521.^[2] In the Tuscan countryside andare a veglia meant spending winter evenings together talking, telling stories and playing, often in the stable.^[13][5] In 1877 Fanfani and Arlìa condemned veglia danzante as a clumsy rendering of French soirées dansantes.^[2] The augmentative veglione, a large dance with masks lasting all night, is recorded as a Tuscan word in 1839.^[2]

Later senses include a public night-time demonstration, the waking state of the mind in neurophysiology, and, historically, a torture used from the 16th to the 18th century that kept the accused awake by force.^[5][14] Meyer-Lübke records related dialect words such as Ossolan and Valtellinese vila, an evening gathering in the stable.^[10]

Timeline

• 1306–1308 – Nocentini's date for the first record of veglia.^[9]
• 14th century – Vegghia in the Italian Gregory and Boccaccio, veglia in the Trattato del governo della famiglia.^[2]
• 1521 – Bibbiena uses the word for a family evening gathering in the prologue of the Calandria.^[2]
• Before 1535 – Stare a veglia “to stay awake” in Francesco Berni.^[2]
• 1658 – Daniello Bartoli uses it for a night spent awake.^[2]
• 1839 – Veglione is recorded as a Tuscan word.^[2]
• 1857 – The sense “evening party lasting late into the night” enters the dictionaries.^[2]
• 1877 – Fanfani and Arlìa criticise veglia danzante.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. wakefulness, the state of being awake: tra la veglia e il sonno, half asleep.^[5][6][7]
2. Staying awake through the night or the hours meant for sleep, for study, work, illness or prayer: fare la veglia al nonno malato, to sit up with one's sick grandfather, and veglia funebre, a wake beside the dead.^[5][6][14]
3. A public vigil or demonstration held at night: una veglia contro la guerra.^[5][6]
4. (dated) An evening party, especially with dancing, that goes on late into the night: veglia danzante.^[5][6][7]
5. (Tuscan, historical) A winter evening spent in the countryside with friends and family, talking, playing and telling stories: andare a veglia.^[5][13][7]
6. (religion) A night service: veglia pasquale, the Easter Vigil held on the night of Holy Saturday.^[6][14]
7. (physiology) The waking state, in which the senses perceive and the mind controls voluntary action: stato di veglia.^[5][14]
8. (history) A torture used from the 16th to the 18th century, which kept the accused awake by force.^[14][5]

Word family

• veglione
• veglionissimo

Related words

• vegliare
• svegliare
• vigilia
• vigilare

Usage notes

GRADIT lists a second veglia as the feminine of the obsolete veglio “old man”.^[5] Sabatini–Coletti gives veglio, veglia “old” as a literary word from Old French vieil, Latin vetulus.^[7] Tommaseo records this vèglia “old woman”, pronounced with an open e, in Cene della Chitarra: una veglia nera, vizza e rauca (a black, withered and hoarse old woman).^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 703
4. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4001
12. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana