costui

Forms

costui m (feminine costei, plural costoro, demonstrative)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum istūi (“here, to that one”), a spoken Latin form built from eccum (“here he is”) and a dative of iste (“that one (by you)”).^[2][3][4][1] The classical dative was istī; the ending ⟨-ui⟩ follows the model of cui, and the dative form spread to every use of the singular.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} The feminine costei goes back to *eccum istēi and the plural costoro to *eccum istōrum.^[2][3][9] Prati weighed and set aside an older view that took them from questi with the endings of lui, lei and loro, and built them like colui from forms of ille.^[10]

The same formation is Romanian acestui and Old French cestui.^[1] The Latin adverb is ecce (“behold”) joined to a pronoun, probably the accusative hunc.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is the Istoria of the Pseudo-Uguccione, a Lombard text of the first half of the 13th century, with the sense “this man”.^[12] DELI's first is Dante in 1294.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the pronoun could stand in periphrases for the Christian God, or replace a name the speaker wished to leave unsaid, and placed before a noun it meant “his”.^[12] Dante has Quando i' vidi costui nel gran diserto (“when I saw this man in the great desert”) and mi prese del costui piacer sì forte (“seized me so strongly with delight in him”).^[13][14]

Today it belongs to written and formal Italian and usually carries contempt.^[2][5][14] The dictionaries quote Manzoni's Don Abbondio: Carneade! Chi era costui?^[5][6][14]

Timeline

• First half of the 13th century – The Lombard Istoria of the Pseudo-Uguccione uses costui.^[12]
• Before 1294 – Bono Giamboni uses the plural costoro.^[2]
• 1294 – Dante uses costui.^[2]
• Before 1300 – Guido Cavalcanti uses the feminine costei.^[2]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (formal) This man, he, him: a person near the speaker or the listener, or just mentioned, often disparaging: E costui che cosa vuole da noi?^{[4][5][6][14][9]}
2. (archaic, literary) Placed between the article and a noun, his, of this man, as in Dante's del costui piacer.^[4][5][14]

Related words

• costei
• costoro
• colui
• questo
• codesto
• ecco
• Latin iste

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1136
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 340
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
13. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
14. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli