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viaggiare

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Etymology and origin of the Italian word viaggiare

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1602
Ultimate origin
Latin via
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Italian viaggio
Italian viaggiare

Pronunciation

  • /vi.adˈd͡ʒa.re/[1]
  • Regional: /vjadˈd͡ʒa.re/[1]

Forms

viaggiare (first-person singular present viàggio, first-person singular past historic viaggiài, past participle viaggiàto, auxiliary avére)[1]

Etymology

It is from Italian viaggio (“journey”) + -are.[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary instead takes it from Old French voyagier.[1] The same verb is French voyager, Occitan viatjar and Portuguese viajar.[6]

The noun viaggio is viatge, from Latin viāticum (“provisions for a journey”), the neuter of the adjective viāticus (“of the road, of a journey”), which comes from via (“road”).[7][8][6] DELI explains the Gallo-Romance route by the suffix: a native Italian form would end in -atico.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the verb to 1602.[9] DELI's first record is in the preacher Paolo Segneri, in 1679, in the sense “to make one or more journeys”, and notes that D'Alberti's dictionary refers to Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger (1619).[7][2][10] Segneri's Lenten sermons describe the pleasure-boat traveller: “Viaggiate sedendo, viaggiate giacendo, viaggiate dormendo” (you travel sitting, you travel lying down, you travel asleep).[11]

Semantic evolution

Tommaseo defined the verb as going to distant places, chiefly for pleasure or learning, and recorded the saying Non sa molto chi vive di molto; sa molto chi viaggia di molto (he who lives long does not know much; he who travels much knows much).[11] He also records viaggiare come i bauli “to travel like trunks”, without learning anything on the way.[11][12]

The transitive use, “to travel through, to tour”, is recorded from 1820, and goods are said to “travel” from 1891.[7] The commercial traveller's sense, viaggiare in with the goods sold (viaggiare in pellami), is recorded from 1927, in Panzini.[7][3] Later figurative senses are travelling with the imagination and, in drug slang, being under the effect of a hallucinogen;[2][4][13][7] DELI records the matching sense of viaggio from 1968.[2][4][13][7] In 19th-century England the slang Polari had vaggerie “to go, to leave”, from the Italian verb.[10]

Timeline

  • 1602 – Zingarelli's date of first record.[9]
  • 1619 – Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger uses the verb, according to D'Alberti.[7]
  • 1679 – Paolo Segneri uses viaggiare “to travel”.[7][2]
  • 1820 – The transitive sense “to travel through” is recorded.[7]
  • 1891 – Goods are said to viaggiare “be transported”.[7]
  • 1927 – The sense “to work as a commercial traveller” is recorded.[7]
  • Mid-19th century – Polari vaggerie “to go” is recorded in England.[10]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To travel, to go from one place to another, usually far away: Viaggiamo sempre in treno. Also absolutely, to make journeys.[2][3][4]
  2. To work as a commesso viaggiatore, a commercial traveller; with in, to deal in a kind of goods.[2][3][9]
  3. To run, to move along a route (of a vehicle), often with a speed or a delay: L'autobus viaggia con dieci minuti di ritardo.[2][3][13]
  4. To be carried, to be shipped (of goods).[2][3][9]
  5. (figurative) To travel in the imagination, to daydream.[2][4][13]
  6. (slang) To be under the effect of a hallucinogenic drug.[2][4][13]
  7. (transitive) To travel through, to tour: Ha viaggiato tutta l'Asia.[2][9][1]

Word family

  • viaggiatore
  • viaggiante
  • riviaggiare

Usage notes

Set phrases include viaggiare in incognito (travelling under a false name) and the jocular viaggiare col cavallo di San Francesco “to go on foot”.[9][12][3] The imperative viaggia! is used to send away someone who is a nuisance.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  5. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  11. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
Cite this entry

“Viaggiare.” Etymologically, 22 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/viaggiare. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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