teco

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tēcum (“with you”), from tē (“you”), the ablative of tū, with cum (“with”) placed after it.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Zingarelli and the GDLI call it a learned word.^[6][7] It is formed like meco and seco.^[8][5]

Other Romance languages added the preposition again: Old Italian conteco, Logudorese contegus, Spanish contigo and Portuguese contigo.^[9][8] In Basilicata a form ⟨taik⟩ became a general preposition.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the northern form tego in Raimbaut de Vaqueiras at the end of the 12th century.^[2][4] Northern texts of the 13th century have it as well: Guido Faba writes tego and Bonvesin de la Riva teg.^[7] In Tuscan teco is in Dante (1313–19), “with you, in your company”: Mio figlio ov'è? e perché non è teco? (“Where is my son, and why is he not with you?”).^[2][3][10]

Semantic evolution

Old Italian had the variants tego, teigo, tico and tieco.^[7] Boccaccio used both teco and the form with a second preposition, con teco (1348–53), and con esso teco, with esso between them, as in io vi verrei una volta con esso teco.^[2][11][12] With stesso or medesimo it meant “within yourself”, teco medesimo.^[3][6][13]

Tommaseo noted in 1861 that popular speech still repeated the preposition.^[12] The word lived on in poetry and the libretto, from Leopardi to Verdi's Un ballo in maschera (Teco io sto); today it is literary or archaic.^[4][10][1] Old Italian also had tecomeco, a go-between or tale-bearer, and the phrase a tecomeco, face to face.^[9][14]

Timeline

• End of the 12th century – Raimbaut de Vaqueiras uses the northern form tego.^[2]
• 1313–1319 – Dante uses teco.^[2][3]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses teco and con teco.^[2]
• 1861 – Tommaseo notes that popular speech doubles the preposition.^[12]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (literary, archaic) With you, in your company: verrò teco.^{[3][11][10][1]}
2. (literary) With stesso or medesimo: within yourself, to yourself.^[3][6][13]
3. (archaic) Preceded by a pleonastic con (con teco), or with esso between (con esso teco), with the same sense.^[3][10][6]

Related words

• meco
• seco
• te
• Latin tecum
• Spanish contigo

Usage notes

Teco belongs with meco “with me” and seco “with him, with her”.^[8][10] The ordinary word is con te.^[15][4]

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 c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
4. ^ a b c d Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b c d Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 20, 793
8. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3737
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
11. ^ a b 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 c Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
13. ^ a b Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 981
15. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org