due

Forms

due (invariable)^[2][1] In the 14th century the forms due, dui, duo and dua were in use, and in the 16th century also doi, duoi and du’.^[3] Popular speech has du’ before a noun.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin duo (“two”).^[3][5][6] GRADIT and Wiktionary take it from the feminine duae,^[2][1] while DEI and Devoto start from the masculine Late Latin dui of later Latin that replaced classical ⟨duo⟩.^[7][8] Nocentini explains the Italian form as the survivor of an Old Italian opposition between masculine ⟨dui⟩ and feminine ⟨due⟩: Old Italian ⟨duo⟩ continues the Latin masculine and neuter, and ⟨dua⟩ the neuter ⟨dua⟩ found in Latin inscriptions.^[5] Wiktionary adds that ⟨due⟩ may have won because it stood between the other forms in sound.^[1] A trace of the distinction of genders survives in Piedmontese and Lombard dialects.^[7] The word is panromance: French deux, Occitan dos, Catalan dos, Spanish dos, Portuguese dois and duas, Sardinian duos and duas, Romanian doi and două.^[5]

The Latin numeral continues Proto-Italic *duō, from Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁, a dual.^[1][9] It has cognates in every branch of Indo-European: Ancient Greek δύο (dúo), Sanskrit द्व (dvá), Old Church Slavonic дъва (dŭva), Lithuanian dù, Old Irish dáu and Old English twā, the ancestor of the English numeral.^[5][1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in the rent records of the abbey of Coltibuono (Affitti della Badia di Coltibuono), at the end of the 12th century;^[3] GRADIT and Nocentini date it to the second half of that century.^[2][5] The sense “a few, a small amount” is recorded before 1300 in Rustico di Filippo.^[3]

Semantic evolution

DELI, quoting Migliorini, traces the competition of forms: in the 15th century due was used mainly before feminine nouns or at the end of a phrase, and in the 16th century authors used two or three forms, either at random or by gender, position and the following sound.^[3] Poets tended to keep duo for the masculine and due for the feminine, as in Petrarch's duo amanti and due rose fresche, a rule followed by Ariosto and Tasso;^[3] dua was frequent in Florentine prose (Machiavelli, Gelli, Guicciardini) and was criticized by Salviati.^[3] The Crusca dropped the gender distinction and recommended due in prose and duo in verse, and due finally prevailed in the 17th century.^[3][6]

The vague sense “a few” lives in many phrases: fare due passi (to take a short walk), scambiare due parole (to have a short chat), a due passi (very close).^[2] German took due as a musical term in 1732.^[10]

Timeline

• Second half of the 12th century – First record, in the rent records of the abbey of Coltibuono.^[3][2]
• Before 1300 – Rustico di Filippo uses it for “a few”.^[3]
• 14th century – Due, dui, duo and dua are all in use.^[3]
• 17th century – Due prevails over the other forms.^[6]
• 1732 – Due is recorded as a musical term in German.^[10]

Meanings

Numeral

1. two: ho comprato due biglietti.^[2][11][1]
2. A few, a small amount: aspetta due minuti, arrivo.^[2][3]
3. After a noun, second, as an ordinal: il binario due.^[2]

Noun

1. The number two, and the figure 2: tre più due fa cinque.^[2][1]
2. le due, two o'clock.^[2]

Word family

• duemila
• duepezzi
• duetto
• duino

Related words

• duale
• dualità
• dualismo
• Latin duo

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include come due gocce d’acqua (as like as two peas), avere due pesi e due misure (to have double standards) and contare come il due di picche (to count for nothing).^[2]

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 h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 394
5. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1399
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 154
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier