ella

Forms

ella f (plural elle, archaic plural elleno)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin illa (“that (feminine)”), the feminine of the demonstrative ille (“that”), which became the pronoun of the third person.^[2][3][1][4] DELI describes the Latin word as a compound of two elements of unclear origin.^[2] De Vaan notes that the demonstrative replaced older olle, its vowel usually explained by analogy with iste (“this, that”).^[5]

The word is pan-Romance: French elle, Catalan ella, Spanish ella, Portuguese ela and Romanian ea.^[3] The masculine is egli.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Brunetto Latini, before 1294, with the sense “she”, the person or thing spoken about.^[2][4] In his Rettorica the pronoun refers to wisdom: Picciola forza è quella di sapienza s'ella non è congiunta con eloquenzia (“small is the power of wisdom if it is not joined with eloquence”).^[7] Zingarelli dates the word earlier, before 1250.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian ella could also follow a preposition, as in Dante's io non m'accorsi del salire in ella (“I did not notice the rising into it”); later the oblique cases took lei, la and le.^[9][6] The plural was elle or elleno.^[7][10]

The use of Ella as a polite form of address, for women and men alike, is recorded from Pietro Bembo, before 1547.^[2] Migliorini, quoted by DELI, describes three phases: in the 15th century the pronouns quella, ella, essa, questa and lei came to refer to abstract titles such as Vostra Signoria; in the early 16th century, when the Spanish custom of addressing everyone as signore spread, the other pronouns gave way to Ella as subject and Lei after prepositions; by the middle of the century the form of address had a profile of its own.^[2]

In the 19th century Ella and Lei alternated freely: Carducci once grew angry at a correspondent who wrote Lei “in Manzoni's way”, and in the final text of the Promessi sposi Manzoni kept ella only six times.^[2] Later Lei became the more familiar form and Ella the more respectful or distancing one, and bureaucratic usage even put Ella after prepositions, as in a circular of the University of Rome of July 1929.^[2] In familiar Tuscan the pronoun can lose its first syllable and is often pleonastic: Manzoni's la c'è la Provvidenza! (“there is Providence!”).^[9] Today ella is rare in speech, where lei has replaced it, and the polite Ella has almost disappeared.^[9][6]

Timeline

• Before 1294 – Brunetto Latini uses ella as a subject pronoun.^[2]
• Before 1547 – Pietro Bembo uses Ella as a polite form of address.^[2]
• 1929 – A circular of the University of Rome writes ad Ella, with the pronoun after a preposition.^[2]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (literary) she: the third-person feminine singular subject pronoun, referring to a person already named; in speech replaced by lei: Ella tacque e abbassò lo sguardo.^{[4][6][11][8]}
2. (Tuscan, literary) Referring to a thing, often pleonastic: Ell'era una faccenda da non raccontare.^[8][12]
3. (archaic) Used after a preposition, referring to a person or thing.^[8][6][9]
4. (formal, dated; usually capitalised) you, the polite form of address to a man or a woman, instead of Lei; adjectives agree in the feminine even for a man: Confido che Ella vorrà rispondermi presto.^{[6][11][8][4]}

Related words

• egli
• lei
• esso
• Latin ille

Usage notes

Ella is used only as a subject; the other cases use lei and the unstressed la and le, and the plural is esse or loro (archaic elle, elleno).^[6][9] It survives in careful writing, especially with anche, pure or stessa: anch'ella, ella stessa.^[11]

Old Italian also had a noun ella, the plant elecampane, the same as enula, first recorded in Zucchero Bencivenni in 1310.^[13] It comes from a Late Latin ella or elna of the glosses, for classical inula.^[14][7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
14. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1450