essa

Forms

essa f (plural esse)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ipsa (“herself, she herself”), the feminine of ipse (“self, the very one”).^[1][2] It is the feminine of esso, which DELI and the TLIO trace to the Latin accusative.^[3][4] The same Latin pronoun is pan-Romance: Old French es, Occitan eis, Catalan eix, Spanish ese, Portuguese esse and Romanian îns.^[5][6]

DELI calls the Latin word of uncertain origin.^[3] Nocentini analyses it as the demonstrative is strengthened with the emphatic particle -pse, which he compares with Hittite pat (“same”).^[5] In the Romance languages the pronoun weakened and in places became the definite article, as Sardinian su and Majorcan es.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record of the pronoun is an Umbrian confession formula of 1065 from Norcia, and DELI's is a charter from the Marche of 1193 (issu).^[4][3] Old Italian feminine forms include essa, epsa, issa and exa.^[4] Sabatini–Coletti dates essa to the 14th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian the pronoun was first emphatic, “the same, in person”, then meant “the aforesaid”, and could point to something near the listener like codesto; as a personal pronoun of the third person it served as subject and object.^[4] Dante wrote Vid'io in essa luce altre lucerne “I saw within that very light other lamps”.^[2] In southern Italy, Tuscany and Venice the Latin word became the third-person personal pronoun.^[6] The compounds essolui and essalei are recorded from the 16th century.^[7]

Today essa is the feminine of esso, used mainly for things and animals already named, and sometimes for a person in place of ella or lei.^[2] It serves as subject or after a preposition, not as direct object, and it is uncommon and literary in speech.^[2][8][1]

Timeline

• 1065 – An Umbrian confession formula from Norcia gives the TLIO's first record of the pronoun.^[4]
• 1193 – A charter from the Marche has issu.^[3]
• 14th century – Sabatini–Coletti's date for essa.^[2]
• 16th century – Essolui and essalei are recorded.^[7]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (literary or formal) she, it, her: the third person feminine singular, for a thing or animal and sometimes a person, as subject or after a preposition: La lettera è arrivata ieri, ma in essa non c'era nulla di nuovo.^[2][8][1]
2. (literary) This, that, the very same, before a noun.^[2]

Word family

• essalei

Related words

• esso
• stesso
• medesimo
• desso
• nessuno
• Latin ipse

Usage notes

The plural is esse and the masculine esso.^[1][2] Unlike lei, essa is not used as a direct object.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
3. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
5. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 1546
8. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli