alguno

Forms

alguno (feminine alguna, masculine plural algunos, feminine plural algunas)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote algund and algunt beside the shortened algún; rarer old spellings are algum, adgún, alcuno and alkuna.^[2][3] Until the 16th century algún could also stand before a feminine noun beginning with a vowel (algún obra), and in the 13th century the full form could precede a noun (alguno omne).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *alicunus, a contraction of Latin aliquis (“someone, anyone”) with unus (“one”).^[4][5][6][1] The Vulgar Latin form is not attested;^[1] Wiktionary notes that it is first found in Old French, in the 10th century.^[1]

The same compound is Portuguese algum, Galician algún, Catalan algú, French aucun and Italian alcuno.^[7][1][8] Because the word was so often used with a negation, alcun and its Old Italian counterpart came to mean “none”, as the French word does today.^[7][9] Portuguese has an early trace of the form in a Latin document of 897.^[10]

The Latin pronoun is formed from the stem of alius (“other”) and quis (“who”);^[11][1] de Vaan suggests that the first part may be a shortening of that word, which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-io- (“another”).^[12]

Corominas argues that alguien is not the Latin accusative aliquem, which would have given *algue, but a 15th-century remodelling of this word under the influence of quien.^[4][5] algo continues the neuter aliquod.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the full form to 1077 and the shortened algún to the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140).^[4][5] In the Cid it is already an indefinite word for an unspecified person or thing, and can be used alone in the plural (algunos, “some people”, line 3116).^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Until the end of the Middle Ages alguno served both as adjective and as pronoun “someone”, since alguien does not appear in Castile before the 15th century; the new pronoun was stressed alguién until the 17th century, when Calderón already has the modern stress.^[4][5] Alfonso X's prose uses the word for one or several unspecified things and also in the sense “a certain amount, a fair amount” (algun tiempo).^[15]

Placed after the noun in a negative sentence, alguno means “none, no … at all” (sin duda alguna); Domínguez described this use in 1846, and Salvá noted that in the old language it could mean ninguno even before the noun.^[16][17][6] The Academy's dictionary of 1770 recorded an old legal sense, “valid”, as opposed to ninguno “null”, with a quotation from the Leyes del Estilo.^[18] Cuervo's dictionary of 1886 analysed the word's uses in detail, from the fully indefinite to the negative and the phrase alguno que otro.^[19]

Timeline

• 1077 – first record of alguno.^[4][5]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has the shortened algún and the pronoun algunos.^[4][13]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses algun, alguna and the spelling algunno.^[15]
• 1438 – the derived pronoun alguien appears in Juan de Mena's Coronación.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin aliquis as its equivalent.^[20][21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin aliquis.^[22]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades explains it as a compound of aliquis and unus.^[23]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the senses “someone” and “a fair amount”.^[24]

Meanings

Determiner

1. some, any: an unspecified one of the persons or things named: ¿Tienes algún lápiz?^[6][1]
2. In the plural, a few, a small number of: Leímos algunos poemas.^[6][1]
3. With an uncountable noun, a certain amount of, some: Todavía tiene alguna duda.^[6][25]
4. (formal) After the noun in a negative sentence, no … at all: No dijo palabra alguna.^[6][26]

Pronoun

1. Someone, one of a group, an unspecified one: Si sobra pan, guarda alguno.^[6][1]
2. In the plural, some people: Algunos prefieren el tren.^[1][25]

Word family

• alguien

Related words

• algo
• ninguno
• uno
• Latin aliquis
• Portuguese algum

Usage notes

Before a masculine singular noun the form is algún (algún día); alguno is used elsewhere.^[2][17] The phrase alguno que otro or algún que otro means “the odd one, a few”.^[6][24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. alguno
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. alguno
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 163
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alguno
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. alguno
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 410
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 194
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 44
14. ^ Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 27
15. ^ 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. alguno
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. 89
17. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 51
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 171
19. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 1, 340
20. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (c. 1495), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca (facsimile, Madrid: Real Academia Española 1951), p. 25
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 289
22. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 130
23. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1
24. ^ 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. 52
25. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alguno
26. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. alguno