Venetian word of the day: zioba

Today’s word of the day is literally a word of the day, since it means Thursday. Zioba, like all the days of the week in Venetian, is quite different from the standard Italian, in this case, giovedì. 

I distinctly remember my father teaching me the days of the week in Venetian as a child, and I remember thinking how strange zioba sounded. It reminded me of zabaion, the Venetian for the Italian word zabaglione and therefore promised something sweet. Maybe that’s why, today, zioba is my favourite Venetian day of the week.

There’s a Venetian saying, ‘sempre in meso come el zioba’, which means ‘always in the middle, like Thursday’ as it falls in the middle of the week.

The full set of days are as follows:

Like in standard Italian, the days of the week are all masculine apart from Sunday, which is feminine. So, to wish someone a nice Monday, you say ‘Bon luni!’ (Italian: ‘Buon lunedì!’), but to wish someone a nice Sunday you say ‘Bona domenega!’ (Italian: ‘Buona domenica!’)

Bon zioba!