Etymologically
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poco

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Pronunciation

Forms

poco (feminine poca, masculine plural pochi, feminine plural poche; superlative pochissimo; cut to po’ in un po’)[2][1][3] Old and rural Tuscan has pogo, Old Sicilian pocu.[4][5] Old Italian also wrote pocco and puoco.[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin paucus (“few, little”), from the accusative ⟨paucum⟩; the Latin adjective was used mostly in the plural, ⟨pauci⟩ “few”.[7][8][5][1] The word is continued across the Romance languages, as Dalmatian pauk, French peu, Occitan pauc, Catalan poc, Spanish poco and Portuguese pouco, but not in Romanian; in southern Italy DEI thinks it came in as a loan from the standard language.[8][9][3]

The Latin word is Proto-Italic *paukos, built on the root Proto-Indo-European *peh₂w- (“few, little”) that is also in paullus (“small”), parvus (“small”) and pauper (“poor”).[10][8][1] Outside Latin the nearest relatives are Ancient Greek παῦρος (paûros, “few, small”) and Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍃 (faus, “few”), the same word as English few.[8][11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record of the adjective is in Giacomo da Lentini, before 1250, for something small in quantity, number or size, and of the adverb in Stefano Protonotaro in the middle of the 13th century, “in small measure, scarcely”.[7] GRADIT dates the Sicilian form pocu to about 1250.[5]

Semantic evolution

As a noun, il poco “a small amount” is recorded in Bono Giamboni before 1292, and the derivative pochezza “scarcity” in the same author; later it also meant “meanness, pettiness” (before 1427).[7] The phrase da poco gave dappoco “worthless, inept” in the first half of the 14th century.[8]

The shortened form po’ became the usual one in un po’ “a little”, and doubled in un po’ po’ di…, used ironically for something large or remarkable.[5] Before an adjective, poco softens or denies its meaning (poco simpatico “not very nice”).[5][1]

As a musical term poco (poco forte, poco a poco) passed into French in 1703, German in 1732 and English in 1724.[12][3]

Timeline

  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses the adjective.[7]
  • c. 1250 – The Sicilian form pocu is recorded.[5]
  • Mid-13th century – Stefano Protonotaro uses the adverb.[7]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses il poco “a small amount” and pochezza.[7]
  • First half of the 14th century – Dappoco is formed from da poco.[8]
  • 1703 – The musical term poco is first recorded in French.[12]
  • 1724 – The musical term poco is recorded in English.[12]

Meanings

Determiner

  1. Little, not much: C'è poco latte in frigo.[5][13][2]
  2. (in the plural) few, not many: Restano pochi biglietti.[5][13][2]
  3. Short, brief, of time or distance.[2][1]

Pronoun

  1. Little, a small amount, (in the plural) few people: Pochi conoscono questo sentiero.[5][2][1]
  2. A short time: da poco “recently”, tra poco “soon”, poco fa “a moment ago”.[5][1]

Noun

  1. A small quantity, un po’ (di) “a little, a bit (of)”.[5][1]

Adverb

  1. Little, not much, scarcely: Ultimamente esco poco.[5][13][1]
  2. For a short time; seldom.[5]
  3. (before an adjective or adverb) Not very: un ragazzo poco paziente.[5][1]
  4. (music) Slightly, a little, in directions such as poco forte.[12][1]

Word family

  • pochezza
  • pochino
  • pochetto
  • dappoco
  • poc'anzi

Usage notes

Common phrases include a poco a poco “little by little”, per poco “nearly”, a dir poco “to say the least” and poco male “no great harm”.[5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  3. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 2983
  4. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 789
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  6. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 13, 692
  7. ^ a b c d e f Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  13. ^ a b c Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier