journee

Journee, properly written as journée in French, is a feminine noun meaning the duration of a day or the daytime portion from morning to night. It can refer to the span of time occupied by a day’s activities, such as in the phrase une longue journée de travail, or to the daytime period generally. The term is distinct from jour, which can indicate a calendar date or a day in a more general sense. In everyday French, journée is used in a wide range of expressions, including bonnes journées/bonne journée as a courteous farewell.

Etymology and relation to other terms: Journée derives from the Old French jour, meaning day, with a suffix that forms a period or extent of time; the root ultimately traces back to Latin diurnum (daylight). Related words in other Romance languages include jornada in Spanish and giornata in Italian, which convey similar notions of a day or a workday.

Usage notes: In French, jourńée carries a diacritic on the final e; the unaccented spelling journee is considered nonstandard in French. In English writing, the accented form is rarely used, and journee may appear only in stylistic branding or as a loanword in certain contexts; standard English typically uses “day.”

See also: jornada, giornata, journée and related phrases in French that describe daily timeframes.