Moving house in Italian

Near the end of this list stands la giornata del trasloco, and its first word is not the one an English reader expects. Italian already has il giorno, the day as a point on the calendar — il giorno della consegna is the date the keys change hands. La giornata is that noun plus the suffix -ata, and the suffix does one job: it turns a point of time into the stretch of time lived through it. La giornata del trasloco is therefore not the square in the diary but the whole of it, from before dawn until the last box is up the stairs. The pattern is productive and the pairs run right across the language: la sera gives la serata, la mattina gives la mattinata, la notte gives la nottata, l’anno gives l’annata. English has a single noun in each case and has to lean on an adjective to say what the ending says by itself — « a long day », « the whole evening », « a bad winter ». So read la giornata as effort and duration, and keep il giorno for the date.