tanto

Forms

tanto (feminine tanta, masculine plural tanti, feminine plural tante, superlative tantissimo)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tantus (“so great”), and as an adverb its neuter tantum (“so much; only”).^[2][3][4][5] The Latin adjective was in use at every period, with the original sense “so great”, in correlation with quantus (Italian quanto); in Romance it moved from “so great” to “so much” and also took the place of tam before adjectives and adverbs.^[2] The word is panromance: French tant, Occitan tan, Catalan tant, Spanish tanto, Portuguese tanto, Sardinian tantu and Romanian atât.^[6][7]

tantus is derived from Latin tam (“so”), as quantus is from quam.^[5][8][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *tānto- and sees in the word a PIE type of adjectives in *-nt(o)- formed from pronoun stems, Proto-Indo-European *teh₂-nt-(o-);^[9] Oscan and Umbrian have the prefixed Oscan etanto and etantu.^[9] Nocentini traces tam to the pronoun root Proto-Indo-European *to-, the source of tale.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's first record is in Dante's Vita nuova (1293–1294), in correlation with quanto in comparisons;^[2] GRADIT and DIFIT date the word to 1294, Devoto–Oli and Nocentini to the 13th century.^{[3][10][11][6]} Monte Andrea's question to Death, “Morte, perché mi se' tanto contesa?” (Death, why do you deny yourself to me so much?), is among GDLI's early quotations.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Dante's Commedia (1300–1313) has the adjective “so much, so great” and its use with che or da before a clause of result.^[2] The adverb is in Boccaccio's Decameron (1348–1353), and the sense “only” in Ferrarese texts of 1385.^[2] The neuter pronoun for an unspecified amount (costa tanto, so-and-so much) was condemned by Bolza in 1853 and defended by Fanfani and Arlìa in 1877.^[2]

Compounds and derivatives include cotanto (before 1250), intanto (13th century), frattanto (14th century) and the diminutive tantino, recorded by Florio in 1598, with un tantino “a little” in 1619.^[6][2] As a musical direction the adverb was borrowed into German by 1802 and into English by 1876.^[10]

Timeline

• Before 1250 – Cotanto is recorded.^[6]
• 1293–1294 – Dante uses tanto with quanto in the Vita nuova.^[2]
• 1348–1353 – The adverb in Boccaccio's Decameron.^[2]
• 1385 – Tanto “only” in Ferrarese texts.^[2]
• 1598 – Tantino in Florio.^[2]
• 1802 – German borrows the musical term.^[10]
• 1876 – English borrows the musical term.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. So much, so great; a lot of: c'è tanta nebbia stamattina.^[3][11][13]
2. (plural) So many, many: ho tanti cugini, tante grazie!.^[3][11]
3. With che or da, introducing a result: aveva tanto sonno da non reggersi in piedi.^[3][14]
4. With quanto, as much as, as many as: ho tanti libri quanti ne hai tu.^[3][4]
5. (literary) So eminent, so illustrious: un onore dovuto a tanto ospite.^[4][15]

Pronoun

1. Much, a lot, (plural) many people: tanti la pensano così.^[1][2][13]
2. An unspecified amount: ogni mese mette da parte tanto.^[2][3]

Adverb

1. So, so much: è tanto stanco che non parla.^[3][15]
2. very much, a lot: mi manchi tanto.^[15][1]
3. With quanto in comparisons of equality: è tanto bella quanto simpatica.^[15][4]
4. Only, just: una volta tanto, lo dico tanto per parlare.^[2][15]

Conjunction

1. Anyway, after all, expressing resignation: urla pure, tanto non ti sente nessuno.^[15][1]

Word family

• tantino
• intanto
• frattanto
• pertanto
• cotanto
• altrettanto

Related words

• quanto
• tale
• Latin tantus
• French tant

Usage notes

Set phrases include ogni tanto and di tanto in tanto (now and then), tanto meglio (so much the better), tanto di cappello (hats off), non più di tanto (not particularly) and tanto vale (one might as well).^[3][1][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 e f g h i De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
5. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 437
6. ^ a b c d e Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 714
13. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ a b c d e f Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli