La storia del grillo e della formica

Why is “nozze” always plural in Italian?

Italian has no singular for a wedding: le nozze is always plural, like English “nuptials.” It comes straight from Latin nuptiae, itself plural, from nubere, “to take a husband” — a verb thought to have first meant “to veil oneself,” from the same root as nube, “cloud.” The everyday alternative is il matrimonio, which is singular and far more common in conversation.

The plural is baked into the phrases that matter: viaggio di nozze (honeymoon), lista di nozze (wedding registry), nozze d’oro (golden anniversary), and the proverb “non si possono fare le nozze con i fichi secchi” — you can’t throw a wedding on dried figs, i.e. you can’t do things properly without the means. In this folk rhyme the cricket and the ant get engaged in four lines and are already at “il pranzo delle nozze.”