Etymologically
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zia

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈd͡zi.a/, /ˈt͡si.a/[1]

Forms

zia f (plural zie)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin thia (“aunt”), borrowed from Ancient Greek θεία (theía, “aunt”), the feminine of θεῖος (theîos, “uncle”).[2][3][4][1] It is the feminine of zio.[5][6]

The classical word for a father's sister, Latin amita, survived only in parts of the Rhaeto-Romance area and in Old French ante, the source of French tante.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI and GRADIT give Giovanni Villani's chronicle, before 1348, as the first record, in the sense “sister of one's father or mother”.[5][2] Zingarelli dates the word to before 1237, and the GDLI quotes a poem attributed to Re Giovanni of the Sicilian School, where Iseult is Tristan's aunt: “ancor che li fosse zia” (“even though she was his aunt”).[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio has the word in the Decameron, where an aunt of Calandrino dies.[10][11] The sense “wife of one's uncle” is recorded only in 1961, though the use is surely older.[5] In colloquial speech zia is also a title of respect for an elderly woman, and in central and southern Italy it is often cut to zi’.[2][8][12]

In slang the word came to mean a male homosexual, and regionally a brothel-keeper.[2][12][9] In Tuscany zie were also the calluses on the knees, as at Lucca they were called nonne, “grandmothers”.[10]

Timeline

  • Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses zia.[5][2]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it in the Decameron.[10]
  • 1961 – The sense “wife of one's uncle” is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An aunt, the sister of one's father or mother: Passiamo il Natale da mia zia a Bari.[2][3][12]
  2. The wife of one's uncle.[2][3][8]
  3. (colloquial) A title of respect for an elderly woman.[2]
  4. (vulgar, derogatory) A male homosexual.[2][12][4]

Word family

  • zietta
  • zio
  • Late Latin thia

Usage notes

Zia is placed before a first name with or without the article: zia Anna or la zia Anna.[2][3] Zia paterna and zia materna are the father's and the mother's sister.[2][8] The GDLI also lists an obsolete nautical zia, backward rowing, formed from the verb ziare, and a northern Old Italian zia, a variant of già “already”.[9]

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 De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  5. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  8. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ 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, 1072
  10. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4113
  11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 4, 1940
  12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse