meco

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mēcum (“with me”), a learned word according to DELI and the GDLI,^[2][3] formed from mē, the ablative of ego (“I”), and cum (“with”) placed after it.^[2][4][5] Wiktionary and Meyer-Lübke treat it as inherited, with Old Italian conmeco beside it, which repeats the preposition.^[1][6] DELI adds that the word is in popular use in parts of Italy;^[2] Rohlfs, quoted in the GDLI, notes that Tuscan popular speech still uses it and teco, and that the old northern dialects had Venetian mego.^[3]

The same formation with a repeated preposition gave Spanish conmigo and Portuguese comigo.^[6] The Latin preposition goes back to Proto-Italic *kom, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm (“next to, with”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest form is mecu, in a charter from Gallura in Sardinia of 1173.^[2][4][7] In Italian it appears in the 13th century in Chiaro Davanzati: Diedivi pegno / lo cor: meco nol tegno “I gave you my heart in pledge: I do not keep it with me”.^[2][3] In the 13th century it was used in Sardinian, Lombard, Venetian, Emilian, Genoese, Tuscan, Marchigian and Sicilian texts.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The old language often doubled the preposition, as in con meco, or strengthened it with esso: Boccaccio writes tu cenerai con esso meco “you will dine with me”.^[4][9][10] With stesso or medesimo it came to mean “within myself”: Petrarch writes di me medesmo meco mi vergogno “I am ashamed within myself of myself”, and Leopardi Così meco ragiono “thus I reason with myself”.^[4][5] Tommaseo also notes uses meaning “against me”, as in Dante's Paradiso, and “towards me”, in Francesco Redi.^[11]

Today the word is literary, and when used in speech it is usually humorous.^[4][9]

Timeline

• 1173 – Mecu is recorded in a Gallurese charter.^[2][4]
• 13th century – Chiaro Davanzati uses meco.^[2][3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (literary) with me, in my company: resta meco ancora un poco.^{[4][9][5][10]}
2. (literary) Within myself, to myself, often with stesso or medesimo: ne discussi a lungo meco stesso.^[4][5][12]
3. (archaic) After a pleonastic con or con esso, in the same sense: con meco, con esso meco.^[4][9][12]
4. (humorous) Used in jest in modern speech.^[4]

Related words

• teco
• seco
• me
• con
• Latin mecum
• Spanish conmigo

Usage notes

Meco forms a set with teco and seco.^[3] A slang noun meco “boss, master”, in prison jargon the head warder, has a separate source: it is recorded in 1905 and comes from the French slang word mec.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2401
9. ^ a b c d Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli