ello

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin illud (“that”), the neuter form of the demonstrative ille (“that”).^[1][2][3][4] Corominas has no article of his own for it and sends the reader to él, which continues the masculine with the treatment of a stressed word.^[5][6] Spanish kept the neuter as a pronoun of its own beside ella; unstressed, the same Latin form gave the article lo.^[2][1] Asturian ello has the same pronoun.^[1]

The Latin demonstrative replaced older olle; the change of ⟨o⟩ to ⟨i⟩ is usually put down to the analogy of iste.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) uses ello as a stressed neuter pronoun of the third person, and also the contracted dello “of it”.^[8][4] In charters of the early 13th century it appears after prepositions, as in a royal charter of 1230 for the monastery of Oña: nunqua mas respondan por ello “let them never again answer for it”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used it mainly after prepositions.^[4] The Academy's 1884 dictionary defined it as the nominative of the neuter personal pronoun, also used after prepositions, and noted that after forms of ser it can mean the same as ella.^[10]

The classical language also had an expletive ello at the start of a sentence, meaning “indeed, in truth”, which Correas described as filling out the phrase with a certain grace; it is found in the Pícara Justina and in Torres Villarroel (1752).^[11] Pedro Henríquez Ureña observed in 1939 that ello, used without a break from the Cid to Pérez Galdós, had begun to disappear from speech.^[12][13] It mostly sums up a fact already mentioned in the discourse, sometimes pleonastically.^[14][15]

In psychoanalysis el ello translates the German term Es, Freud's “id”.^[3][16] The current DLE has no article of its own and treats the pronoun under él.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses ello and dello.^[8][4]
• 1230 – a charter of Fernando III for Oña has por ello.^[9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario: se non deuen marauillar por ello.^[18]
• 1509 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin illud.^[10]
• 1917 – Malaret records the Puerto Rican negative ello “no, never”.^[11]
• 1939 – Henríquez Ureña notes its retreat from the spoken language.^[12]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary lists the psychoanalytic noun.^[3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. it: the neuter third-person pronoun, referring to a fact, action or statement already mentioned; used as subject and after prepositions: No quiero volver a hablar de ello.^[3][20][1]

Noun

1. (psychoanalysis) The id: the unconscious part of the psyche that holds the instincts and is ruled by the pleasure principle.^{[3][20][16][1]}

Related words

• él
• ella
• lo
• Latin ille

Usage notes

¡A ello! is a cry urging someone to start on something, and ello es que “the fact is that” introduces what follows from a vague account.^[20][3] In the Dominican Republic the old phrases ello no and ello sí meant “falsely” and “truly”; in rural Puerto Rico ello (eyo) was used as a negative, “no, not at all”.^[21][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ello
4. ^ a b c d Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C., p. 206
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 553
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 550
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 226
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ello
10. ^ 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. 411
11. ^ a b c Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 177
12. ^ a b Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 263
13. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 264
14. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 268
15. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 275
16. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. ello
17. ^ 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. ello
18. ^ 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. ello
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. ello
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ello
21. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. ello