diary

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdaɪ.ə.ɹi/, /ˈdaɪ.ɹi/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪ.əɹi

Etymology 1

From Latin diārium (“a daily allowance for soldiers, in Late Latin also ‘diary’”), neuter of *diārius, from diēs (“a day”) (whence also journal). Cognate with Spanish diario (“daily; diary”).

Noun

diary (plural diaries)

1. A daily log of experiences, especially those of the writer.

   Synonyms: daybook, journal

   They kept separate diaries. His was on paper and her diary was on her computer's hard drive.

   • 2005 January 30, Jef Biederman, “Feng Shui Is Like So Passe”, in Totally Spies!: Undercover, season 3, episode 19, spoken by Alexandra “Alex” (Andrea Baker as Clover and Katie Griffin), Marathon Media, via Teletoon:

     No, I’m just going over the stuff Tara wrote in my diary.
     She’s writing your diary? Could you be any lazier?

2. (British, Canada) A personal organizer or appointment diary.

   Synonym: (more common term in Canada) agenda

   • 2004, Victoria Kidwell, Homework, page 29:

     It is recommended that teachers and pupils are issued with homework diaries to help implement and monitor the homework timetable.

Coordinate terms

• calendar
• daybook
• chronicle
• log

Derived terms

• dear diary
• diarism
• diarist
• e-diary
• homework diary
• nondiary
• visual diary

 

Related terms

• diurnal
• journal

Descendants

• → Indonesian: diari

Translations

daily log of experiences

• Afrikaans: dagboek (af)
• Albanian: ditar (sq) m
• Arabic: دَفْتَرُ يَوْمِيّاتٍ (daftaru yawmiyyātin); يَوْمِيَّات f pl (yawmiyyāt); دَفْتَرُ مُذَكِّراتٍ (daftaru muḏakkirātin); مُذَكِّرَات (muḏakkirāt)
• Armenian: օրագիր (hy) (ōragir)
• Asturian: diariu m
• Azerbaijani: gündəlik (az)
• Bashkir: көндәлек (köndəlek)
• Belarusian: дзённік m (dzjónnik), дзе́ньнік m (dzjénʹnik), дзёньнік m (dzjónʹnik)
• Bengali: দিনলিপি (bn) (dinlipi), রোজনামচা (bn) (rojnamca), রোজনামা (bn) (rojnama)
• Bulgarian: дне́вник (bg) m (dnévnik)
• Burmese: ဒိုင်ယာရီ (my) (duing-yari), နေ့စဉ်မှတ်တမ်း (my) (ne.canyhmattam:)
• Catalan: diari (ca) m
• Central Dusun: diari
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 日記／日记 (jat⁶ gei³)

  Hokkien: 日記／日记 (zh-min-nan) (li̍t-kì / ji̍t-kì)

  Mandarin: 日記／日记 (zh) (rìjì)

  Wu: 日記／日记 (⁸zeq-ci)

• Czech: deník (cs) m
• Danish: dagbog (da) c
• Dutch: dagboek (nl) n
• Esperanto: taglibro
• Estonian: päevik
• Faroese: dagbók f
• Finnish: päiväkirja (fi)
• French: journal intime (fr) m
• Galician: diario (gl) m
• Georgian: დღიური (ka) (dɣiuri)
• German: Tagebuch (de) n
• Greek: ημερολόγιο (el) n (imerológio)

  Ancient: ἐφημερίς f (ephēmerís)

• Gujarati: ડાયરી m (ḍāyarī)
• Hebrew: יוֹמָן (he) m (yomán)
• Hindi: रोज़नामा m (roznāmā), रोज़नामचा m (roznāmcā), दैनन्दिनी (hi) f (dainandinī), डायरी (hi) f (ḍāyarī)
• Hungarian: napló (hu)
• Icelandic: dagbók (is) f
• Ido: diario (io)
• Indonesian: buku harian (id), diari
• Interlingua: diario
• Irish: dialann f
• Italian: diario (it), diario intimo m
• Japanese: 日記 (ja) (にっき, nikki), 日記帳 (ja) (にっきちょう, nikkichō)
• Kalmyk: өдрлг (ödrlg)
• Kannada: ಡೈರಿ (kn) (ḍairi), ದಿನಚರಿ (kn) (dinacari)
• Kazakh: күнделік (kündelık)
• Khmer: ជំនិតដៃ (cumnɨt day)
• Korean: 일기(日記) (ko) (ilgi), 일기장(日記帳) (ko) (ilgijang)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: rojnivîsk (ku)

• Kyrgyz: күндөлүк (ky) (kündölük), дневник (dnevnik)
• Lao: ສມຸດບັນທຶກ (sa mut ban thưk), ບົດບັນທຶກປະຈຳວັນ (bot ban thưk pa cham wan), ສະມຸດປະຈຳມື້ (sa mut pa cham mư̄)
• Latin: ephēmeris f, commentārius (la) m
• Latvian: dienasgrāmata f
• Lithuanian: dienoraštis (lt) m
• Macedonian: дневник m (dnevnik)
• Malay: diari
• Malayalam: ഡയറി (ml) (ḍayaṟi)
• Maori: pukapuka rātaka, rātaka
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: өдрийн тэмдэглэл (ödriin temdeglel)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: dagbok (no) m or f

  Nynorsk: dagbok f

• Occitan: jornal (oc) m
• Ottoman Turkish: روزنامه (ruzname)
• Pashto: ورځپاڼه (ps) f (wrajpāṇa)
• Persian:

  Dari: کِتَابْچَهٔ خَاطِرَات (kitābča-yi xātirāt), روزْنَامَه (fa) (rōznāma)

  Iranian Persian: دَفْتَرِ خاطِرات (daftar-e xâterât), دَفْتَرِ خاطِراتِ روزانِه (daftar-e xâterât-e ruzâne), روزْنامِه (fa) (ruznâme)

• Polish: dziennik (pl) m, pamiętnik (pl) m, dzienniczek (pl) m
• Portuguese: diário (pt) m
• Romanian: jurnal intim n
• Russian: дневни́к (ru) m (dnevník), ежедне́вник (ru) m (ježednévnik)
• Scottish Gaelic: leabhar-latha m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: дне̑внӣк m, бѐлежница f

  Roman: dnȇvnīk (sh) m, bèležnica (sh) f

• Sinhalese: දින පොත (dina pota)
• Slovak: denník m
• Slovene: dnevnik (sl) m
• Spanish: diario (es) m, diario personal m
• Swahili: tarihi, shajara (sw) class n
• Swedish: dagbok (sv) c
• Tagalog: talaarawan
• Tajik: дафтари хотира (daftari xotira), рӯзнома (tg) (rüznoma)
• Tamil: நாட்குறிப்பு (ta) (nāṭkuṟippu)
• Tatar: көндәлек (tt) (köndälek)
• Telugu: డైరీ (te) (ḍairī)
• Thai: อนุทิน (th) (à-nú-tin), ไดอารี (dai-aa-rîi)
• Tigrinya: መዝገበ-ዕለት (mäzgäbä-ʿəlät)
• Turkish: günlük (tr), ruzname (tr)
• Turkmen: gündelik
• Ukrainian: щоде́нник (uk) m (ščodénnyk)
• Urdu: روز نامْچَہ m (roz nāmca), روزْنامْچَہ m (roznāmca), ڈائِری f (ḍāirī), روزْنامَہ m (roznāma)
• Uyghur: كۈندىلىك (kündilik)
• Uzbek: kundalik (uz)
• Vietnamese: sổ nhật ký, nhật kí, nhật ký (vi)
• Volapük: delabuk (vo)
• Welsh: dyddiadur (cy), dyddlyfr m
• Yiddish: טאָג־בוך n (tog-bukh)

Verb

diary (third-person singular simple present diaries, present participle diarying, simple past and past participle diaried)

1. (intransitive) To keep a diary or journal.
   • 2015, Hugh O'Donovan, Mindful Walking:

     As part of her mindful movement practise, diarying is important to Sarah. "It gives me a chance to see what is going on, to reflect on my experience."

Etymology 2

From Latin diārius.

Adjective

diary (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Lasting for one day.
   • 1605, Francis Bacon, a letter to the Lord Chancellor, touching the History of Britain:

     the offer of a usurpation, though it were but as a diary ague

Further reading

• “diary”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “diary”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “diary”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• dairy, riyad, yaird