altro

Forms

altro (feminine altra, masculine plural altri, feminine plural altre)^[1] Old forms include altru, atro, aotra and oltro.^[2] Central Italian dialects have antro, artro and astro, with the ⟨l⟩ changed by dissimilation from the article.^[3] The old pronoun altri “someone else” continues the Latin dative.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin alter (“the other (of two)”), from the accusative alterum.^[6][5][7][1] In classical Latin the word meant “the other of two”, while alius (“another, different”) meant “another” among many; in the later language the first took over both uses, and that is why it continues everywhere in Romance.^[4][8] It is panromance: French autre, Occitan autre, Catalan altre, Spanish otro, Portuguese outro, Sardinian àtteru, Romanian alt and Dalmatian yultro.^[5][3]

The Latin word is formed with the contrastive suffix Proto-Indo-European *-teros on a base *al-, the same as in the Latin word for “another”;^[5][9] Wiktionary gives the whole form as *h₂élteros.^[1] Its exact Italic matches are Oscan alttram and Umbrian atrud.^[5]

Besides the form from the Latin accusative, Italian kept altri “someone else”, from the dative alterī, with the ending of egli and questi, and altrui, from the dative Vulgar Latin *alterui, remade on cui (“to whom”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is an Umbrian confession formula of 1037–1089, and Devoto–Oli and Sabatini–Coletti date the word to the 11th century.^[2][10][11] DELI's first Tuscan record is a list of rents of the Badia di Coltibuono from the end of the 12th century, in the senses “different, new, remaining”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian already had the main modern uses: “further, additional”, “remaining”, “the second of two”, “different”, the reinforcing noi altri and voi altri, and time phrases for the day before or after.^[2] As a pronoun, un altro “someone else” is in Brunetto Latini and Guittone d'Arezzo before 1294, and the LEI records it in nearly every dialect, from Genoese ’n ätro to Bolognese äter.^[4] The neuter use “something else” is common in Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio: Dante's Tra tutto l'altro ch'i' t'ho dimostrato (among all the rest I have shown you, Inferno 14).^[12]

Many fixed combinations grew from it: altresì, altrettanto and altrimenti in the 13th century, altrove and altronde in the 14th, and the exclamation altroché “and how!” in 1909.^[5] Altruismo (1875) was taken from French altruisme, itself formed on the French form of altrui.^[5] In recent usage altro can follow a noun in the sense “alternative”, as in cultura altra.^[7][13]

Timeline

• 1037–1089 – The word appears in an Umbrian confession formula.^[2]
• End of the 12th century – It is recorded in the rents of the Badia di Coltibuono.^[6]
• 13th century – Altri, altrui, altresì and altrettanto are recorded.^[5]
• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses un altro “someone else”.^[4][7]
• 14th century – Altrove and altronde are recorded.^[5]
• 1875 – Altruismo is borrowed from French.^[5]
• 1909 – Altroché is first recorded.^[5]

Meanings

Determiner

1. other, different: not the same as the one mentioned or meant: ci vediamo un altro giorno.^[7][10][14]
2. With the definite article, the remaining one or ones: gli altri ospiti arrivano dopo.^[7][11][15]
3. another, one more: vuoi un'altra fetta di torta?^[7][14][11]
4. A second, a new: si crede un altro Leonardo.^[7][11]
5. In time expressions, previous (l'altra sera) or next (quest'altra settimana); domani l'altro, the day after tomorrow.^[7][14][13]
6. After noi, voi and indefinite words, as a reinforcement: chiunque altro, noi altri.^[7][14]
7. After a noun, alternative, outside the mainstream: musica altra.^[7][14]

Pronoun

1. Another person or thing: questo non mi piace, prendo l'altro.^[7][1]
2. (plural) Other people, everyone else: non pensa mai agli altri.^[1][15]
3. (masculine singular) Something else, anything else: desidera altro?^[1][12]

Word family

• altri
• altrui
• altruismo
• altruista
• altresì
• altrettanto
• altrimenti
• altrove
• altronde
• altroché
• altrieri

Related words

• alterare
• alterno
• alternativa
• subalterno
• alieno
• Latin alter
• French autre

Usage notes

Common phrases are d'altra parte and d'altro canto (on the other hand), tra l'altro (among other things), senz'altro (certainly) and l'altro mondo (the afterlife).^[10][13][7] Altro che as an answer means “of course!”.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d e Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 2, 240
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
9. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 29
10. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli