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mio

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Pronunciation

Forms

mio (feminine mia, masculine plural miei, feminine plural mie)[1] Old Italian meo.[2][3][4] In popular Tuscan the form mi’ is used before the noun for every gender and number (il mi' babbo, la mi' mamma), and central dialects use mia for the plural.[5][3] Old enclitic forms are -mo, -ma (fratelmo “my brother”, mogliema “my wife”).[5][4][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Italian meo, inherited from Latin meus (“my, mine”).[1][2][7][8] The Tuscan form passed through an older mieo, which the plural “miei” still shows, as dio comes from Latin deus through dieo.[6][9] The 13th-century poets Guittone d'Arezzo, Chiaro Davanzati and Dante da Maiano still wrote “meo”.[2][4] The unstressed enclitic forms “-mo” and “-ma” (“fratelmo”, “mogliema”), and “ma-” in madonna, continue short forms of the same word.[4][6] In polite address of the type “mio capitano” the use copies French mon.[6]

The same word is French mien, Occitan mieu, Catalan meu, Spanish mío, Portuguese meu, Sardinian meu and Romanian mieu.[7][10] Unstressed forms beside them gave Catalan mon and Spanish mi, as well as the French word above.[10]

Latin “meus” continues Old Latin meos and Proto-Italic *meos.[1] It is built on the stem of ego (“I”), as in mē (“me”) and mihi (“to me”).[7][11][12] An archaic variant mius is found in inscriptions and noted by the grammarian Velius Longus.[2][11] Devoto takes “meus” to be a newer form than the one kept in Ancient Greek ἐμός (emós, “my”).[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sabatini–Coletti and Nocentini date the word to the 11th century, from the feminine mea.[13][7] DELI's first record of mio “belonging to me” is in Bono Giamboni, before 1292: La Filosofia... puosesi a sedere in su la sponda del mio letto “Philosophy sat down on the edge of my bed”.[2][14]

Semantic evolution

Dante uses mio for “peculiar to me, my own” before 1321, and as a pronoun, “mine”, in 1313–1319;[2] Giamboni already has it without a noun, “what is mine”.[2] The plural i miei “my family, my parents” is recorded before 1347 in Bartolomeo da San Concordio.[2]

With singular nouns of kinship the possessive takes no article (mio padre, mia sorella), but it does with plural or modified ones (i miei fratelli, il mio caro zio) and with affectionate forms (la mia sorellina); usage varies with mamma and papà.[8][5] Placed after the noun it is emphatic or vocative: a casa mia, figlio mio!.[8][3] It forms common exclamations, mamma mia!, Dio mio!.[8] In the 1970s the feminist slogan io sono mia “I am my own” claimed women's right to decide about their own lives.[15]

Timeline

  • 11th century – The feminine mea is recorded.[13][7]
  • 13th century – Guittone d'Arezzo and Chiaro Davanzati write meo.[2]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses mio.[2]
  • 1313–1319 – Dante uses mio as a pronoun.[2]
  • Before 1347 – I miei “my family” in Bartolomeo da San Concordio.[2]
  • 1970s – The slogan io sono mia of the women's movement.[15]

Meanings

Determiner

  1. my: belonging to me, that I own or use: la mia bicicletta.[8][3][13]
  2. Part of me, proper to me, physically or in mind: le mie mani, i miei dubbi.[8][3]
  3. Made, said, written or given by me: il mio ultimo romanzo.[8][3]
  4. Linked to me by family, friendship, work and the like: mio zio, il mio dentista.[8][3][13]
  5. After the noun, with emphasis or in addressing someone: Questa è casa mia!, amico mio.[8][3]

Pronoun

  1. mine: Questo ombrello è il mio.[2][1]
  2. i miei, my family, my parents.[2][16]
  3. il mio, what belongs to me, my own property: Voglio solo il mio.[2][1]

Word family

  • inmiarsi

Usage notes

Mio may be written with a capital, Mio, when it refers to God or another revered figure understood from context.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 666
  5. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2469
  7. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 283
  10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
  15. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  16. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org