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In the nominative and accusative neuter, the forms dieses and dies are in general interchangeable, but there is a tendency to prefer one or the other in the following situations:
In adjectival usage, dieses is generally preferred to dies. So dieses Haus ("this house") is more common than the also correct and synonymic dies Haus.
In substantival usage, dieses is used to refer to a previously used neuter noun:
Unser Unternehmen sollte das Gebäude verkaufen. Wir können dieses nicht mehr gebrauchen.
Our company should sell the building. We cannot make use of it anymore.
Dies is used to refer to a preceding context or phrase:
Unser Unternehmen sollte das Gebäude verkaufen. Dies würde uns viel Geld einbringen.
Our company should sell the building. This would earn us a lot of money.
Dies is also used to refer to something the speaker perceives with the senses (exophoric use, deixis):
Sieh dir dies mal an! – Have a look at this! (e.g. a newspaper article)
Dies sind meine Kinder. – These are my children. (regular use of the neuter singular with a copula verb)
The above habits are mainly true of formal speech and writing. Colloquially, the shorter dies is often preferred, but the pronouns das and es are even more common.
Back-formed from the accusative diem (at a time when the vowel was still long), from Proto-Italic*djēm, the accusative of *djous, from Proto-Indo-European*dyḗws(“heaven, sky”). The original nominative survives as *diūs in two fossilised phrases: mē diūs fidius(an interjection) and nū diūs tertius(“day before yesterday”, literally “now (is) the third day”). The d in diēs is a puzzle with some suggesting dialect borrowing and others referring to an etymon *diyew- via Lindeman's Law. But note the possible Proto-Italic allophony between *-CjV- and *-CiV-, which may be the cause for this divergence (SeeWT:AITC).
Sex diēbus colligite in diē autem septimō sabbatum est Dominō idcircō nōn inveniētur.
Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.
1564, Elizabeth I of England, Queen Elizabeth's Latin Speech to the University, at the Conclusion of her Entertainment in St. Mary's Church 9:
Haec tamen vulgaris sententia me aliquantulum recreavit, quae etsi non auferre, tamen minuere possit dolorem meum, quae quidem sententia haec est, Romam uno die non fuisse conditam.
But this common saying has given me a certain amount of comfort – a saying which cannot take away, but can at least lessen, the grief that I feel; and the saying is, that Rome was not built in one day.
Dates in the Roman calendar were reckoned according to the calends (kalendae), the nones (nōnae), and the ides (īdūs). The calends of every month was its first day; the nones and ides of most months were their 5th and 13th days; and the nones and ides of the four original 31-day months—Mārtius, Maius, Quīntīlis or Iūlius, and Octōber—were two days later. January 1st was thus kalendaeIānuāriae or Iānuāriī. The day preceding any of these three principal days was called its eve (prīdiē). January 12th was thus prīdiēīdūsIānuāriās or Iānuāriī (pr.Id.Ian.). All other days of the month were expressed by counting inclusively forward to the next of these three principal days and, in early Latin, this was expressed in the ablative. January 11th was thus diētertiōanteīdūsIānuāriās or Iānuāriī (IIIId.Ian.). By the time of classical Latin, however, the ante had moved to the beginning of the expression and it became an accusative absolute: antediemtertiumīdūsIānuāriās or Iānuāriī (a. d.IIIId.Ian.). In this form, the date functioned as a single indeclinable noun and could serve as the object of prepositions such as ex and in.
Unlike most fifth-declension nouns, diēs is not exclusively feminine. It was typically masculine, particularly in the plural. It appears as a feminine noun when being personified as a goddess, in some specific dates, in reference to the passing of time, and occasionally in other contexts.
“dies”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“dies”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
dies in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
dies in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
a day's journey: iter unius diei or simply diei
to give some one a few days for reflection: paucorum dierum spatium ad deliberandum dare
in our time; in our days: his temporibus, nostra (hac) aetate, nostra memoria, his (not nostris) diebus
year by year; day by day: singulis annis, diebus
the intercalary year (month, day): annus (mensis, dies) intercalaris
when it is growing dusk; towards evening: die, caelo vesperascente
the day is already far advanced: multus dies or multa lux est
while it is still night, day: de nocte, de die
the succession of day and night: vicissitudines dierum noctiumque
night and day: noctes diesque, noctes et dies, et dies et noctes, dies noctesque, diem noctemque
from day to day: in dies (singulos)
to live from day to day: in diem vivere
every other day: alternis diebus
four successive days: quattuor dies continui
one or two days: unus et alter dies
one, two, several days had passed, intervened: dies unus, alter, plures intercesserant
to adjourn, delay: diem proferre (Att. 13. 14)
on the day after, which was September 5th: postridie qui fuit dies Non. Sept. (Nonarum Septembrium) (Att. 4. 1. 5)
to-day the 5th of September; tomorrow September the 5th: hodie qui est dies Non. Sept.; cras qui dies futurus est Non. Sept.
yesterday, to-day, tomorrow: dies hesternus, hodiernus, crastinus
to appoint a date for an interview: diem dicere colloquio
at the appointed time: ad diem constitutam
to live to see the day when..: diem videre, cum...
time will assuage his grief: dies dolorem mitigabit
to depart this life: mortem (diem supremum) obire
on one's last day: supremo vitae die
to put off from one day to another: diem ex die ducere, differre
the date: dies (fem. in this sense)
immorality is daily gaining ground: mores in dies magis labuntur (also with ad, e.g. ad mollitiem)
to keep, celebrate a festival: diem festum agere (of an individual)
to keep, celebrate a festival: diem festum celebrare (of a larger number)
to decree a public thanksgiving for fifteen days: supplicationem quindecim dierum decernere (Phil. 14. 14. 37)
to pass the whole day in discussion: dicendi mora diem extrahere, eximere, tollere
to summon some one to appear on a given day; to accuse a person: diem dicere alicui
to fix a day for the engagement: diem pugnae constituere (B. G. 3. 24)
“dies”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
“dies”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890) A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
Sihler, Andrew L. (1995) New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN
dies in Enrico Olivetti, editor (2003-2024), Dizionario Latino, Olivetti Media Communication