ello

Forms

ello m^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin illum (“that”), the accusative of the Latin demonstrative.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DEI notes that at first, in the 13th century, it was used only in the oblique cases.^[6]

The Latin pronoun replaced older olle or ollus.^[7] The change of ⟨o-⟩ to ⟨i-⟩ is usually put down to the analogy of iste.^[7] Wiktionary takes the older form back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“beyond, other”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the pronoun before 1250, and DEI to the 13th–14th century, in the sense “he, him”.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

In early Tuscan verse and prose ello was a subject pronoun, as in Dante's Ello passò per l'isola di Lenno (“He passed by the island of Lemnos”, Inferno 18), and also followed a preposition, as in Noi eravam partiti già da ello (“We had already left him”, Inferno 32).^[9][4] Boccaccio and the Fioretti di San Francesco used it too.^[8][9] It survives only as an archaic and poetic form of egli.^[10][3]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – First record of the pronoun.^[8]
• 1306–1321 – Dante uses ello as subject and after a preposition in the Inferno.^[9][4]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (archaic, literary) he, him: the third person masculine singular, used as a subject or after a preposition; a variant of egli.^{[10][3][4][8]}

Related words

• egli
• ella
• elli
• lui
• Latin ille

Usage notes

In verse the form is shortened to el, and the plural is elli.^[8] Written Ello with a capital, it could refer to God or another revered person understood from the context.^[1]

DEI records a separate èllo “there he is”, an interjection of central and southern Italy, from Latin ellum, used by Plautus and Terence.^[6] Körting places it in Molise and the Abruzzi.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
3. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
5. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1451
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh