onde

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin unde (“from where, whence”).^[2][3][4][1] The adverb survives across the Romance languages: Old French ont, Occitan on, Catalan on (“where”), Old Spanish ond, Portuguese onde (“where”), Romanian unde (“where”) and Sardinian undi.^[3][5] Combined with dē (“from”) it gave donde, French dont and Spanish donde.^[5][3]

The Latin adverb is formally parallel to inde (“from there”) (the source of indi), and DELI calls its origin obscure, with comparisons only in some Slavic adverbs.^[2] Nocentini derives it from the interrogative base seen in ubi (“where”) with the suffix of the adverb for “from there”.^[3][6] Devoto set up an older form with initial /kw/, like the one he assumed for “where”, and found the nasal and the ending obscure.^[7] Wiktionary derives it from an earlier cunde, a form of quī (“which”) with a demonstrative suffix, keeping the /k/ in alicunde (“from somewhere”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, before 1250, is the short form ’nde in an anonymous poet, in the sense “from where”: Rivolsimi in quel lato / là ’nde venia la vuce “I turned to that side whence the voice came”.^[2][8] The same period already has the poetic relative use “of which, by which” and, in Iacopo Mostacci, the conjunction “so that”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante (1300–13) has the full form onde and the senses “from whom, from what source” and “from which thing”.^[2] His Or ti fa lieta, ché tu hai ben onde “now be glad, for you have good reason” gave the phrase avere ben onde.^[9][10]

The final use “so that, in order to” was attacked by purists: the 19th-century grammarian Puoti is said to have hung a sign in his school declaring that whoever used onde for affinché or per was a fool.^[2] Del Lungo showed that in the 17th and 18th centuries onde with the infinitive stood for a relative phrase of purpose, and in the 19th century it was used even without an antecedent.^[2] It survives in bureaucratic prose, especially in the formula onde evitare.^[11] Today the word is literary.^[4][12]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – ’Nde “from where” in an anonymous poet; the conjunction in Iacopo Mostacci.^[2]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses the full form onde.^[2]
• 19th century – Onde with the infinitive spreads to sentences without an antecedent.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (literary) From where, whence, in questions: Onde venisti? (Carducci).^[4][9][12]
2. (literary) Why, for what reason.^[4][10][13]
3. (literary, relative) From which, through which, from where: Salì sulla torre onde si vedeva il lago.^[4][9][14]
4. (literary, relative) Of which, with which, by which: gli eventi / onde cotanto ragionammo insieme (Leopardi).^[4][9][12]
5. (literary) Hence, whereby, for which reason: Pioveva da giorni, onde la gara fu rinviata.^[4][12][10]

Conjunction

1. (literary or bureaucratic) So that, in order to, with the subjunctive or the infinitive: Vi scrivo onde chiarire la questione.^[4][10][11]

Word family

• laonde
• ondeché

Related words

• donde
• indi
• ove
• Latin unde

Usage notes

Onde is also the plural of onda “wave”, a separate word from Latin unda.^[15] The jocular onde per cui means “and so”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 11, 962
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org