Etymologically
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due

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Pronunciation

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
  • 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