Meaning
never
- never (emphatic or literary)
In a sentence
Non cederemo giammai a simili ricatti.
We will never yield to such blackmail.
Giammai avrei creduto che potesse tradirmi in questo modo.
Never would I have believed he could betray me like this.
Giammai si era vista una simile crudeltà in tempi di pace.
Never had such cruelty been seen in peacetime.
Usage notes
- Mostly literary, archaic, or emphatic; in everyday speech use mai or non...mai instead.
- It can appear without non in elevated style: Giammai! In normal Italian, negation usually needs non.
- The older positive sense 'sometimes' is obsolete; modern readers understand it almost only as a negative adverb.