Etymologically
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dove

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Pronunciation

Forms

dove (invariable; elided dov’ before è)[2] Old and dialect forms include duve, due and dua, and the shortened do’.[3][4] Regional forms are addó, ndo and indove.[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dē (“from”) and ubi (“where”), the phrase ⟨dē ubi⟩ “from where”, which took the place of the simple adverb.[5][6][7][8][9] The simple Latin word survives as literary ove.[6][3] Wiktionary allows a second explanation: a strengthening of ⟨ove⟩ with a prefixed ⟨d-⟩.[1] Tommaseo compares the ⟨d-⟩ of donde beside Latin unde.[10]

Similar compounds are Venetian indove and Corsican indove, with Latin inde, and Sardinian inue;[11][9] Wiktionary compares Piedmontese doa and French d'où.[1] The simple adverb is panromance: French où, Occitan o, Old Spanish ⟨o⟩, Sardinian ⟨ue⟩ and the now obsolete Romanian iu.[6][11]

Latin ⟨ubī⟩ has lost an initial ⟨k-⟩ that is kept in the compound alicubi (“somewhere”).[6][12] De Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *kʷuþei, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷu-dʰi or *kʷu-bʰi, built on the interrogative stem *kʷu-;[12][6] related forms are Oscan puf, Sanskrit कुह (kúha), Avestan kudā and Old Church Slavonic къде (kŭde).[12][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are in Bono Giamboni before 1292, both as an interrogative, “in what place”, and as a relative, “in the place where”;[5] GRADIT and Nocentini date the word to the second half of the 13th century and DEI to the 14th.[7][6][9] GDLI quotes Giamboni's advice that a commander should keep secret “dove l'oste dee andare” (where the army is to go).[3]

Semantic evolution

As a conjunction dove meant “while, whereas” in Guittone d'Arezzo before 1294.[5] Boccaccio used it for “if” (“e dove non vi piacesse”, and if it should not please you) and for “since”, senses that the modern language keeps only in literary style.[4][7] Dante made a noun of it, “place”, in Paradiso 3: “Chiaro mi fu allor com'ogni dove / in cielo è paradiso” (it was clear to me then that everywhere in heaven is paradise).[5][10]

Bembo still treated ove and dove as equivalents, with the poetic shortening u’,[5] but dove became the ordinary word and ove a literary one.[3] The noun survives in per ogni dove “everywhere” and il dove e il quando “the where and the when”.[13][14]

Timeline

  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses dove as an interrogative and a relative adverb.[5]
  • Before 1294 – Guittone d'Arezzo uses it as a conjunction, “while”.[5]
  • Before 1300 – Dovunque “wherever” is recorded in Rustico.[5]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses dove as a noun, “place”.[5]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “if”.[4]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. where, in what place, in questions and exclamations: dove hai lasciato l'ombrello?.[7][8][2]
  2. With da, di or per: from where, through where: da dove arriva questo treno?.[8][13][14]
  3. In relative clauses: in the place where, in which: torniamo dove eravamo ieri, la casa dove sono cresciuta.[7][8][4]
  4. In correlations, in some places: dove più, dove meno.[7][4]

Conjunction

  1. (literary) if, in case: dove fosse necessario, chiamami.[7][4][13]
  2. (literary) Whereas, while.[7][4][14]

Noun

  1. (invariable) Place, especially in il dove e il quando and per ogni dove.[7][13][14]

Word family

  • dovunque
  • laddove

Usage notes

Dove is elided obligatorily only before è (dov'è?).[2] In Tuscan the adverb causes doubling of the next consonant, but the noun does not.[13][2] Set phrases include non sapere dove sbattere la testa (not to know which way to turn) and chissà dove (who knows where).[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  3. ^ a b c d Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  9. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1388
  10. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  12. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  13. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  14. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli