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Etymology and origin of the Italian word li

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
before 1250
Inherited from
Latin illi
Ultimate origin
Latin ille

Pronunciation

Forms

li (masculine plural; singular lo)[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin illī (“those”), the nominative masculine plural of Latin ille (“that”).[3][4][1] The Latin nominative was extended to the accusative in the pronoun.[5] DEI also derives the old dative use from the Latin dative plural, illīs.[6] The same nominative gave the article Old French li and Old Occitan li.[7]

According to Rohlfs, quoted in the GDLI, the old article ⟨li⟩ stood beside ⟨i⟩ in the way ⟨lo⟩ stands beside il, as in Dante's ⟨li parenti miei⟩ but ⟨i piedi⟩.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Zingarelli dates the word to before 1250, and GRADIT dates the pronoun to before 1313.[9][4] The article is in early poetry: Giacomo da Lentini writes “eo getto / a voi, bella, li miei sospiri e pianti” (I cast to you, fair one, my sighs and tears).[8]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian li was an article, the plural of lo, as in Dante's “Tornate a riveder li vostri liti” (go back to see your shores again, Paradiso 2).[4][10] Bembo noted that only poets used it, and the best of them rarely.[3] It survives in dates in letters and official documents (Roma, li 3 marzo), recorded in Pisan letters of 1457 and 1494;[3][2] Migliorini called the spelling lì in this use a gross error.[3][2]

As an unstressed object pronoun, “them”, it is the plural of lo and is the only modern use.[4][5] Old and Tuscan usage also had li as an indirect object, “to him, to her, to them”, as in Dante's “E indietro venir li convenia” (and he had to walk backwards, Inferno 20).[11][6][10]

Timeline

  • Before 1250 – Zingarelli's date for the word.[9]
  • Before 1313 – GRADIT's date for the pronoun.[4]
  • 1457 – Li before a date in a Pisan letter.[3]
  • 16th century – Bembo restricts the article to poets.[3]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. them (masculine, or mixed), as a direct object, before the verb or attached to it: i biglietti li ho già comprati, vado a prenderli.[4][5][2]
  2. (archaic) To him, to her, to them, as an indirect object.[10][11][1]

Article

  1. (archaic, literary) The, masculine plural: the same as i and gli.[4][5][12]
  2. (bureaucratic) Before the day of the month in dates, from the second onwards: Milano, li 12 aprile.[4][2][10]

Usage notes

Li is not elided before a vowel (li ho visti).[2] After me, te, ce, ve, se and glie it comes second (te li presto), and it is attached to ecco: eccoli.[2][5] It should not be confused with the adverb lì “there”.[3]

Li is also the Chinese unit of length, about half a kilometre, recorded in Italian in the first half of the 17th century.[4] Francesco Serdonati describes it as the distance a man's shout can be heard.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2219
  7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  8. ^ 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, 1032
  9. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  11. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 8, 1033

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Li.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/li. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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