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Etymology and origin of the Italian word di

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
early 12th century, Pisan ship's account
Inherited from
Latin de
Ultimate origin
Proto-Italic *dē
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin de
French de
Italian da
Italian di
Italian dove
From the same root
Latin denuo ← de
Latin desuper ← de
French davantage ← de
French debout ← de
French devant ← de
Italian davvero ← da

Pronunciation

Forms

di[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dē (“from, down from; about”), with the unstressed ⟨e⟩ raised to ⟨i⟩ because the word leans on the one that follows.[2][3][4] The Italian form already appears in a Medieval Latin document of Chiusi of 746–747.[2]

The same word is French de, Occitan de, Catalan de, Spanish de, Portuguese de, Romanian de and Sardinian de.[4][5] In late Latin and in Romance “de” took over the functions of the genitive.[5][6] The sense of origin developed into that of possession, as English of did from Old English æf “from”; the partitive and the sense of material were already Latin.[4] Italian expresses origin with the newer da, and Romanian never developed the possessive sense.[4]

Latin “dē” has sure comparisons only in Celtic: Old Irish di and Welsh di-.[4][7] Wiktionary traces it through Proto-Italic *dē to Proto-Indo-European *déh₁ (“towards”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first Italian record is a Pisan ship's account of the early 12th century.[2][4][8] The Ritmo laurenziano, from before 1198, has the form de.[8]

Semantic evolution

The Latin preposition already had many senses, and Late and Medieval Latin added instrumental, comparative and genitive uses; in Italian di is by far the most frequent preposition, and competes with con, a, per, in and above all da.[8] Old texts still use de beside di, from Dante's Vita Nuova to Petrarch, and in many northern dialects.[8]

The articulated forms del, dello and the others come from de and the forms of Latin ille.[9] In the 19th century purists attacked the partitive di after another preposition (con dei amici) as a Gallicism.[2] In bureaucratic, commercial and journalistic language it is often left out between two nouns (scalo merci).[10][11]

Timeline

  • 746–747 – A Medieval Latin document of Chiusi has the form di.[2]
  • Early 12th century – A Pisan ship's account has the first Italian record.[2]
  • Before 1198 – The Ritmo laurenziano has de.[8]
  • 1228 – An inventory of San Gimignano uses di.[8]
  • 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses di for possession and specification.[8]
  • 1741 – Di is recorded as the name of the letter d.[2]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. of, marking possession, belonging or specification: la macchina di Paolo.[12][13][1]
  2. With the article, some (partitive): Vuoi del pane?[1][14]
  3. Of, among, after a superlative: il più alto di tutti.[1][10]
  4. than, in comparisons: È più giovane di me.[1][10]
  5. From, marking origin or separation: Sono di Napoli. uscire di casa.[10][14]
  6. About, concerning: parlare di sport.[1][11]
  7. Made of, marking material: un anello d'oro.[1][14]
  8. With, from, marking a cause: morire di fame.[11]
  9. In, marking time: di notte, d'estate.[1]
  10. Before an infinitive, to (often untranslated): Ho deciso di partire.[1][15]

Word family

  • d'accordo
  • di nuovo
  • di solito
  • di colpo

Usage notes

Di is elided to d’ before a vowel in many fixed phrases, and with the article forms del, dello, della, dei, degli and delle.[13][15] A minor homograph is di, the name of the letter d, recorded from 1741.[2][16] The accented dì “day”, from Latin dies, is a different word.[9][5]

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 d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 19, 342
  9. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti
  10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  11. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  12. ^ De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  13. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  15. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 4

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Di.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/di. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·