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lei

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Pronunciation

Forms

lei f (plural loro, masculine lui)[1] The oldest form is lé (1274).[2] Nocentini dates a form lié to the end of the 12th century.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin illaei, a dative of Latin illa (“that (woman)”), the feminine of Latin ille (“that”).[2][4][1] Classical Latin had one dative, illī, for both genders; popular Latin made a masculine Vulgar Latin *illui on the model of the relative cui and then a feminine on the masculine, with the ending of feminine datives such as illae.[2][3][5][1] Devoto–Oli explains the new form as a way of marking the feminine.[6] The dative spread to all oblique cases, the accusative included.[3] The same form is Occitan lei and Romanian ei.[3]

These stressed forms were at first limited to the oblique cases; from the 15th century ⟨lui⟩ and ⟨lei⟩ gradually took the place of the subject pronouns ⟨egli⟩ and ⟨ella⟩, which by the 19th and 20th centuries survived only in literary style.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the old form lé in Pietro da Bascapè's poem of 1274;[2][4] lei itself is in Dante, before 1321, in the sense “her”, the person spoken of.[2][4] In Paradiso 3 Dante writes: “La vista mia, che tanto lei seguio / quanto possibil fu” (my sight, which followed her as far as it could).[7]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian lei could be an indirect object without a preposition, as in Dante's “Ond'io risposi lei” (so I answered her, Purgatorio 33), and could refer to things and abstractions of feminine gender.[8][9]

The polite Lei began as a pronoun standing for Vostra Signoria (Your Lordship), like Eccellenza, Santità and Magnificenza.[2][1] Its feminine gender comes from such formulas, which are grammatically feminine, like la Vostra persona.[1] Migliorini found the first examples in the 15th century (Pontano in 1476 and Galeazzo Sforza Sanseverino in 1494), and Bembo uses it before 1547.[2] It gained ground over voi and tu, and in 1938, after an article by Cicognani in the Corriere della Sera of 25 January, the Fascists boycotted it, but Lei went on to prevail.[2] Grammatically feminine, it still takes masculine adjectives for men: Lei è coraggioso.[1][10] The noun il lei, the polite form, is in Vincenzo Monti in 1809.[2]

In modern Italian lei has also displaced ella and essa as the subject pronoun.[2][6] Colloquially la lei is a man's girlfriend or beloved, recorded by Zingarelli in 1970.[2][10]

Timeline

  • 1274 – Pietro da Bascapè uses the form lé.[2]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses lei.[2]
  • 1476 – An early example of the polite Lei in Giovanni Pontano.[2]
  • Before 1547 – Pietro Bembo uses polite Lei.[2]
  • 1809 – Il lei “the polite third person” in Vincenzo Monti.[2]
  • 1938 – The Fascist campaign against Lei begins after Cicognani's article.[2]
  • 1970 – La lei “the beloved woman” is recorded in Zingarelli.[2]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. she, as a subject, now the usual form in place of ella and essa, especially when emphasized or contrasted: lui voleva restare, lei no.[6][4][11]
  2. her, as a stressed object and after prepositions: ho visto proprio lei, esco con lei stasera.[4][9][12]
  3. (bureaucratic) il di lei, la di lei in place of the possessive “her”: la signora e il di lei avvocato.[4][11]
  4. (formal, often written Lei) you, the polite form of address to one person of either sex: Lei è molto gentile.[10][2][1]

Noun

  1. il lei: the polite form of address, especially in dare del lei (to address someone formally).[10][4]
  2. la lei (colloquial): a man's girlfriend or beloved.[10][2]

Usage notes

The plural of polite Lei is Loro, often replaced by the more familiar voi; as an unstressed object it has the forms La and Le.[10] Tuscan says dare di lei for dare del lei.[10]

An Old Italian lei meaning “law” is a shortened form of legge, compare Old French and Old Occitan lei;[7][13] lei is also the Hawaiian flower garland, recorded in 1952.[13]

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 l m n o p q r s t 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 d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 256
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 8, 935
  8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  11. ^ a b 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. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2198