indi

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin inde (“from there; thence; then”).^[2][3][4][1] The adverb is pan-Romance: Romanian înde, Old Spanish ende and French en continue it, and in Italian its clitic form is the pronoun ne.^[3][5][6][7]

DELI calls the origin and formation of the Latin adverb disputed, though the second part *-de looks like an inessential element.^[2] Nocentini derives it from the stem of the pronoun Latin is (“that; he”).^[3] The OLD and Wiktionary analyse it as Old Latin im (“then, there”) with the demonstrative suffix -de.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first records are in Dante's Commedia (1300–1313), both for “after that” and “from that place”: poder di partirs’indi a tutti tolle (“takes from all of them the power to leave it”).^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian also had inde and used the adverb as a pronoun, “from it”, as Petrarch does: che morte sola fia ch’indi lo snodi.^[6][10] Old phrases such as per indi “that way” and da indi in qua “since then” are now archaic.^[11][12][13] The word survives as a literary adverb of time and place, and in the jocular indi per cui, “and so”.^[4][13]

Timeline

• 1300–1313 – Dante uses indi for “after that” and “from there”.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (literary) From there, from that place.^[4][11][14]
2. (literary) After that, then: Rilesse la lettera, indi la strappò.^[4][11][13]
3. (literary) Hence, for that reason.^[4][14]
4. (archaic) From it, from that, as a pronoun.^[14][13]

Related words

• ne
• Latin inde

Usage notes

Indi a poco means “shortly after”, and indi per cui is a jocular “and so”.^[11][13] Unlike indi “Indians”, the plural of indio, the adverb has no plural or gender.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2002
7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
10. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
14. ^ a b c Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana