Etymologically
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qualcuno

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Pronunciation

  • /kwalˈku.no/[1]

Forms

qualcuno (feminine qualcuna, no plural)[1] Before altro it is shortened to qualcun, and before altra it is elided: qualcun’altra.[2][3] A popular, Tuscan and literary plural qualcuni existed.[3][4]

Etymology

It is a compound from Italian qualche + uno.[5][6][7][1] The first part is qualche, formed from quale and che: DELI derives it from ⟨quale che (sia)⟩, and Nocentini explains that phrases such as ⟨qual che sia luogo⟩ “whatever place it may be” became ⟨qual che luogo⟩ when the verb was dropped.[5][6] Nocentini notes that French quelque went through the same development, and Wiktionary compares quelqu'un.[6][1]

Körting set out a base Latin quālis with quam and ūnus, and for the variant qualcheduno doubted that its ⟨d⟩ was inserted to avoid hiatus, preferring a form with et (“and”).[8] Nocentini explains that ⟨d⟩, in a variant recorded from the 16th century, by the old form ⟨ched⟩ of ⟨che⟩ before a vowel.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Iacopo Passavanti, 1354, in the sense “some, a few”.[5][7] Tommaseo quotes his question “Or chi potrà scampare di tanti lacciuoli, che non sia preso da qualcuno?” (Who will escape so many snares without being caught by one of them?).[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense “one person, somebody” is in Ser Giovanni in the second half of the 14th century: “que’ che ’l vi dice è qualcuno che mi vuole male” (he who tells you so is someone who wishes me ill).[5][10] Petrarch still used qualcuna as an adjective, “qualcuna saetta” (some arrow), where the modern language has qualche.[7][9]

The use as a noun for a person of some standing, as in essere qualcuno, is recorded by Zingarelli in 1922.[5] Treccani sets it against nessuno, a person who counts for nothing.[2]

Timeline

  • 1354 – Iacopo Passavanti uses qualcuno for “some, a few”.[5]
  • Second half of the 14th century – Ser Giovanni uses it for “somebody”.[5]
  • 16th century – The variant qualcheduno appears.[6]
  • 1922 – Zingarelli records qualcuno “an important person”.[5]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. someone, somebody, a person not identified: qualcuno ha lasciato un messaggio per te.[7][11][3]
  2. anyone, in questions: c'è qualcuno?[7][3][2]
  3. Some, a few, of people or things, often with a partitive: qualcuno dei miei colleghi.[7][11][4]
  4. With altro: someone else: chiedi a qualcun altro.[7][11][12]

Noun

  1. An important or successful person, in essere qualcuno, diventare qualcuno.[7][11][2]

Usage notes

The phrase combinarne qualcuna means to get up to one of one's usual tricks.[7][3][4] The old adjectival use, “some”, is now archaic.[7][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  3. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  9. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  10. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 39
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse