nullo

Forms

nullo (feminine nulla, masculine plural nulli, feminine plural nulle)^[1] Old and dialect forms include Old Italian nul and Old Italian nullu.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nūllus (“no, none”), made up of nē (“not”) and ūllus (“any”), which is a diminutive of ūnus (“one”).^[3][4][5][6] Zingarelli classes the Italian word as learned.^[7] The Latin neuter plural nūlla gave Italian nulla “nothing”.^[3][4]

The same word is French nul, Occitan nul and Catalan null, while Spanish nulo and Portuguese nullo came into Spanish and Portuguese as learned words.^[4][8] From the neuter plural come Old Veronese nuia and Dalmatian noglia.^[9]

Latin nūllus goes back to Proto-Italic *noinolos, from *ne oinolos, literally “not a little one”, a diminutive of *oinos (“one”), from Proto-Indo-European *óynos.^[1] The OLD treats ūllus as probably a later formation.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is the form nullu in Saint Francis of Assisi, about 1224, as an adjective and pronoun meaning “no, none; nobody”.^[3] The legal sense “not valid” follows in the Statuti di Calimala of 1332–1337.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Italian nullo was an ordinary word for “no, none” and “nobody”.^[3][11] Dante wrote Amor, ch'a nullo amato amar perdona (“Love, which exempts no one loved from loving”), and Boccaccio describes a man who was riconosciuto da nullo (“recognised by nobody”).^[5][6][11] It also meant “useless, of no effect”: in the Decameron ogni aiuto era nullo (“all help was vain”).^[2][12] In the 16th century Castelvetro noted that nullo differs from niuno, nessuno and veruno because it can mean “vain” and “without effect”.^[2]

The determiner and the pronoun later became literary;^[11][12][13] Tommaseo calls the pronoun almost unused even in writing, and the proverb nulla nuova, buona nuova (“no news is good news”) is now rare.^[11][12][13] Tommaseo also records an obsolete sense “someone, anyone”.^[11]

The adjective sense “void, invalid” grew in the language of law, where nullo describes an act or document lacking an essential requirement.^[3][5][12] Mathematics uses it for a quantity equal to zero and for the empty set, and sport for a jump, throw or serve that does not count and, loosely, for a drawn match.^[12][5][6]

English borrowed nullo in printing in 1598 and as a term of card games in 1893.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1224 – Saint Francis of Assisi uses nullu “no, none”.^[3]
• Before 1250 – Zingarelli's date for the first record.^[7]
• Late 13th century – The neuter nulla “nothing” appears in the Novellino.^[3]
• 1332–1337 – The Statuti di Calimala use nullo “not valid”.^[3]
• 1356 – The derivative nullitade “invalidity” is recorded.^[3]
• 1598 – English nullo is first recorded, in printing.^[14]
• 1893 – English nullo appears as a term of card games.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Worthless, without effect or importance; nonexistent: Il suo contributo al progetto è stato nullo.^[5][13][7]
2. (law) void, invalid, lacking an essential requirement: Il contratto fu dichiarato nullo dal giudice.^{[5][13][6][7]}
3. (sports) Not valid, of a jump, throw or serve; of a match, ending in a draw.^{[5][13][6][15]}
4. (mathematics) Equal to zero; of a set, having no elements.^[5][13][15]
5. (literary) No, not any.^{[5][6][7][15]}

Pronoun

1. (literary) Nobody, no one.^{[5][13][7][15][1]}

Word family

• nulla
• nulladimeno
• nullaggine
• nullaosta
• nullatenente
• nullatenenza
• nullità
• fannullone
• annullare
• annullamento

Related words

• uno
• Latin nūllus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 650
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
6. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
7. ^ a b c d e f Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2610
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c d e Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
12. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
13. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
15. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana