qui

Forms

qui (invariable)^[1] Old Italian forms include ki (960), quie, quine and quini.^[2][3] Old Florentine also had quije.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum hīc (“look, here”), from Latin eccum (“here he is!”) and hīc (“here”).^[2][5][6][1] The first part also survives in ecco.^[5] Devoto notes that the parts of the compound kept their independence for long enough to stop the /kw/ from becoming /k/, so that the word did not end up as “*chi”.^[7] The original double /kk/ of the compound is lost in the standard language but still heard in most regional varieties.^[1]

The same compound is Catalan aquí, Spanish aquí and Portuguese aqui, while French ici and Occitan aici come from the parallel Vulgar Latin *ecce hīc.^[5][8]

Latin “eccum” is ecce (“behold”) joined to a pronoun, probably the accusative “hunc”.^[9] The adverb “hīc” goes back to an older heic, a locative form strengthened with the particle -ce.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Capuan placito of 960, one of the earliest documents in Italian, in the form ki and the sense “in this place”.^[2][5][6] The spelling qui follows at the end of the 13th century in the Novellino, and the sense “at this moment” before 1292 in Bono Giamboni.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Dante opens the gate of Hell with Qui si convien lasciare ogni sospetto; / ogni viltà convien che qui sia morta (“here all suspicion must be left behind; all cowardice must here be dead”).^[3] Old Italian built compounds on the word: quiritta “right here” (Dante, Boccaccio), quiviritta (18th century), and quinci “from here”, now pedantic.^[10][4] In the Val di Chiana an emphatic ummimquì is recorded.^[4]

Qui points more precisely than qua, which it otherwise matches in many uses.^[11][12][13] It is used to strengthen a demonstrative (questo qui) or an order, and with là or lì it gives qui e là “here and there”.^[6][12]

Timeline

• 960 – First record, as ki, in the Capuan placito.^[2][6]
• Late 13th century – The spelling qui in the Novellino.^[2]
• Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses the sense “at this moment”.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. here: in or to the place where the speaker is, with verbs of rest and of motion: resta qui con me, vieni qui.^[6][14][11]
2. Pointing to a part of one's own body: ho un livido qui.^[6][13]
3. With là or lì: qui e là “here and there”.^[6][11]
4. With prepositions and other adverbs of place: qui sotto, qui vicino, da qui, fin qui.^[6][14][13]
5. Strengthening a demonstrative, ecco or an order: questa penna qui, eccomi qui, guarda qui.^[6][12][11]
6. At this point, now: qui la faccenda si complica.^[6][14][11]

Related words

• qua
• quivi
• quinci
• ecco
• ci
• Latin hic
• Latin eccum
• French ici

Usage notes

In Tuscan pronunciation qui doubles the consonant that follows (qui sotto).^[11][12] Di qui a or da qui a plays down a claim: there is a long way from one thing to another.^[14][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15
4. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3178
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
7. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 357
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 815
11. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
14. ^ 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