él

Forms

él (masculine third-person singular pronoun, feminine ella, neuter ello, masculine plural ellos, feminine plural ellas)^[1] Asturian has ell or ei, and elli.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ille (“that, that one”), in its stressed form.^[2][4][1] The unstressed form of the same Latin word became the article el.^[5] The feminine ella comes from illa and the neuter ello from illud.^[4][6]

The same Latin pronoun is Portuguese ele, Galician ele, Catalan ell, Old Occitan el, French il, Italian egli and Romanian el.^[7][8][9]

The Latin pronoun replaced Old Latin olle; the change of o- to i- is usually explained by the influence of iste.^[10] Wiktionary traces the older form to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ol-no-, from *h₂el- (“beyond, other”), the root of alius and alter.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH dates the pronoun to the beginnings of the language, with charters of 1135 in Oelschläger's list.^[2] Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) uses it as a subject: como quier que el tenie la ley delos moros “although he held the law of the Moors”.^[11] The feminine ella and ela are in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias (1611) notes that el sometimes means the same as Latin ille: Iuan y Maria se casaron, y el era moço y pobre.^[13] Autoridades calls it a demonstrative pronoun of the third person, for someone absent from speaker and hearer, and reserves ello for the neuter; it also notes él used as a word of annoyance or contempt, quoting Calderón's Qué mal me ha sonado el él.^[14] Salvá (1846) still calls it demonstrative, while Domínguez, against the Academy, calls it a personal pronoun.^[15][16] By 1884 the Academy describes it as the nominative of the personal pronoun of the third person, used after prepositions for the other cases.^[17]

In the classical theatre, and in Asturian today, the pronoun is used as a form of respectful or distant address, equivalent to usted.^[2]

Timeline

• 1135 – the first records, in charters.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has the feminine ella.^[12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses el as a subject pronoun.^[11]
• 1611 – Covarrubias notes that el can stand for Latin ille.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades derives the pronoun from Latin ille and calls it demonstrative.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy calls it a personal pronoun.^[17]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. he, him: the third-person masculine singular pronoun, used as a subject and after prepositions: Él no sabe nada; lo hice por él.^[4][1]
2. it, for a masculine noun naming a thing, mostly after prepositions: Compré el libro y no me separo de él.^[1][4]

Related words

• el
• aquel
• le
• lo
• Latin ille
• Portuguese ele
• Catalan ell

Usage notes

Él is written with an accent to tell it from the article el.^[4][18] It is always stressed; its feminine is ella, its neuter ello and its plurals ellos and ellas.^[18][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 550
3. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. elli
4. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. él
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 549
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 3333
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ille
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1275
9. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 266
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. él
12. ^ a b Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 205
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 704
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. el
15. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 426
16. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 661
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 409
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. él