viaggio

Forms

viaggio m (plural viaggi)^[1] Old Italian forms include viagio, viaio, viaiu, viazio and viazo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan viatge, with Old French veiage (about 1080) beside it, from Latin viāticum (“provisions for a journey”).^[2][4][5][1] The Latin noun is the neuter of the adjective viāticus (“of or for a journey”), formed from via (“road, way”) with the suffix -āticus, and it moved from “provisions for the journey” to the journey itself.^[2][6][1] It is a doublet of viatico.^[1][2]

Prati doubted the Gallo-Romance route, because Medieval Latin viāticum (“a going to a place”) is recorded in Italy in 1057.^[2][7] DELI keeps it for three reasons: the suffix, which in a native word would be ⟨-atico⟩ or in the dialects ⟨-adego⟩, ⟨-aigo⟩ or ⟨-ego⟩, the borrowing of the same word into the other Romance languages, and the early use of the plural viātica for “journeys” by Venantius Fortunatus (before 600), who lived for many years in Gaul.^[2] Its relatives are French voyage, Catalan viatge, Spanish viaje and Portuguese viagem;^[4][8] Nocentini takes the Spanish and Portuguese words from Catalan, Meyer-Lübke from Provençal, which he also gives as the source of Sardinian biadzu.^[4][8]

Latin via goes back to Proto-Italic *wijā-, from Proto-Indo-European *uih₁-eh₂- (“pursuit”), a noun of the root that also gave Latin vīs (“you want”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is viagio in a Calabrian text of 1221, and Iacopone da Todi (before 1306) has viaio.^[2][5] The Ritmo di Sant'Alessio, from the Marche, uses viaiu: “estu viaiu ket facia” (this journey that he was making).^[3] In Dante's Inferno (1300–1313) it is both the journey (“Facemmo adunque più lungo viaggio”, so we made a longer journey) and the way taken: “A te convien tenere altro viaggio” (you must keep to another road).^[2][3][10]

Semantic evolution

With Boccaccio (1348–1353) the word took the sense of a tour through other places and countries, to see, learn or enjoy oneself.^[2] The Old Italian sense “way, road” is now archaic or poetic.^[5][10] Pilgrimages are viaggi too, as in il viaggio di San Iacopo to Compostela, which Tommaseo quotes.^[11][12]

In the 19th century the word was used colloquially for each trip made to carry goods (1891, Petrocchi), and Tommaseo noted that a tiring outing even within a town was called un viaggio by emphasis.^[2][11] In 1968 the weekly L'Espresso used it for a drug “trip”, the effect of hallucinogens.^[2] Buon viaggio! is the wish to someone leaving, and l'ultimo viaggio is a euphemism for death.^[12][10]

The verb viaggiare “to travel” appears in Paolo Segneri (1679), and the Alberti dictionary refers it to Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, who uses viaggiatore “traveller” in 1619.^[2]

Timeline

• 1057 – Medieval Latin viaticum “a going to a place” is recorded in Italy.^[2]
• 1221 – Viagio appears in a Calabrian text.^[2][5]
• Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses viaio.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses viaggio in the Inferno.^[2]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for a tour through other countries.^[2]
• 1619 – Viaggiatore is recorded in Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger.^[2]
• 1679 – Paolo Segneri uses viaggiare.^[2]
• 1891 – Petrocchi records the sense “a trip carrying goods”.^[2]
• 1968 – Viaggio is used for a drug trip.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A journey, a trip from one place to another, usually by some means of transport: Il viaggio in treno da Torino a Bari dura molte ore.^[5][13][12]
2. A tour or voyage through other places or countries, for pleasure, study or work; in the plural, travels: Quest'estate faremo un viaggio in Portogallo.^{[13][14][12][1]}
3. A pilgrimage: il viaggio a Lourdes.^[12][10][14]
4. (hyperbolic) A long way between two places in the same town: Da qui all'ospedale è un viaggio!^[5][13]
5. (colloquial) Each trip made to carry something somewhere: Ci sono voluti quattro viaggi per portare su la legna.^[5][14][10]
6. (figurative) An imaginary journey: un viaggio nel Medioevo.^[5][14][12]
7. (slang) A drug trip, the hallucinations caused by drugs.^[5][14][10]
8. (archaic, poetic) Way, road.^[5][10]

Word family

• viaggiare
• viaggiatore
• viaggiatrice
• viaggetto
• viaggiante

Related words

• via
• viatico
• Latin viāticum
• French voyage

Usage notes

Common phrases are buon viaggio! (have a good trip), viaggio di nozze (honeymoon), agenzia di viaggi (travel agency) and cestino da viaggio, a packed meal sold at railway stations.^[12][10][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 q r s t u Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 839
4. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1052
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli