nosotros

Forms

nosotros m pl (feminine plural nosotras)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Old Spanish nos (“we, us”) + otros (“others”), at first written apart; the second part is the plural of otro.^[2][1][3] The first part continues Latin nōs (“we, us”), and the second continues alter (“the other of two”).^[4][5][1]

Old Spanish set the simple pronoun, which took in the speaker's group, against the compound, which set that group apart from another, like French nous autres “we others”; the contrast faded and the compound became the ordinary pronoun.^[6] Similar compounds are Galician nosoutros, Catalan nosaltres, Occitan nosautres, Italian noialtri (regional) and the archaic or regional Portuguese nós outros, but Spanish is unusual in making it the standard first-person plural.^[1]

The Latin pronoun goes back to Proto-Italic *nōs and the PIE accusative Proto-Indo-European *nōs.^[7] The Latin word for “other” goes back to *aliteros (“the other of two”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel's first record is the Libro de los doce sabios (c. 1237), with the spelling nos otros; it also lists the Libro de Alexandre (1230–1250) from a secondary source.^[3] Segura Munguía dates nosotros to 1251.^[8] In these texts it already means “we” or “us” as a stressed pronoun.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias explained the word as the same as nos, as if from Latin “we others”.^[9] Autoridades defined it as the pronoun for several people including the speaker, and noted that it is also used in the singular for the authority or dignity of the person speaking, as when a Pope listed himself with Saint Peter as Nosotros.^[10] The modern dictionary keeps that use in writing, where an author says nosotros for “I”, and in the sense of a group the speaker belongs to.^[2] The old nos survives as the unstressed object form and, with prepositions, only in archaic phrases.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1237 – nos otros in the Libro de los doce sabios.^[3]
• 1251 – the date Segura Munguía gives for nosotros.^[8]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains it as “we others”.^[9]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the singular use for the speaker's authority.^[10]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. we, us: the speakers or writers, as subject or after a preposition: Nosotros llegamos ayer.^[2][1]
2. The members of a group that the speaker belongs to: Nosotros, los médicos, trabajamos de noche.^[2]
3. (chiefly written) Used by an author for “I”, out of modesty.^[2][10]
4. (chiefly written) Used in the same way for “me” after a preposition.^[2]

Related words

• nos
• otro
• nuestro
• Latin nōs
• Catalan nosaltres

Usage notes

The feminine nosotras is used when the group is made up only of women.^[2][1] Nosotros is always stressed; the unstressed object form is nos.^[12][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. nosotros
3. ^ a b c d Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. nosotros
4. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nos
5. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 323
6. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. nosotros
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. nōs
8. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 95
9. ^ 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. 1167
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. nosotros
11. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. s.v. nōs
12. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nosotros