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Etymology and origin of the Italian word tu

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
13th century, Novellino
Inherited from
Latin tu
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *túh₂
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin tu
French te
French toi
French tu
Italian tu
From the same root
Latin tute ← tu

Pronunciation

Forms

tu (second person singular)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tū (“you (singular)”), the nominative and vocative of the second person singular pronoun.[2][3][4][1] It is panromance: French tu, Occitan tu, Catalan tu, Portuguese tu, Spanish tú, Sardinian tue and Romanian tu.[3][5] Old Italian also had a form ⟨tue⟩, which Tommaseo still heard in popular Tuscan in the 19th century.[6][7]

The pronoun belongs to the common Indo-European vocabulary: Ancient Greek τύ (tú) (in Doric), Avestan tū, Lithuanian tù, Armenian դու (du), Old Church Slavonic ты (ty) and Gothic 𐌸𐌿 (þu), whence German du and English thou.[3][8] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ through Proto-Italic *tū.[1] De Vaan notes that the Anatolian forms, such as Hittite zik, point to an older nominative ⟨*ti(H)⟩, which may have been replaced by ⟨*tu(H)⟩ after Anatolian had separated from the rest of the family.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEI dates the first record to the 13th century, in the Novellino;[6] GRADIT and Nocentini give a date before 1295,[4][3] and DELI's first example is from Dante, before 1321.[2]

Semantic evolution

The choice between tu, voi and Lei as forms of address has a long history and a large literature, with studies of its use in the Decameron and in I promessi sposi.[2] The phrase dare del tu, to address someone as tu, is recorded in the 16th century in Annibal Caro;[6] compare French tutoyer.[6] Italian formed tuteggiare and tueggiare on the same model.[4][6]

Old Italian could join the pronoun to a preceding verb, as in Dante's vedestù la scritta morta (“you saw the dead inscription”, Inferno 8.127).[9][10] Today it is used only as a subject and is usually left out; the object and the cases with prepositions use te and ti.[4][11]

Timeline

  • 13th century – The Novellino has tu.[6]
  • Before 1295 – GRADIT's and Nocentini's date for the pronoun.[4][3]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses tu.[2]
  • 16th century – Annibal Caro uses dare del tu.[6]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. you (singular), addressing someone with whom one is on familiar terms; used only as a subject and usually left out: Tu che ne pensi?[4][12][11]
  2. Placed after the verb for emphasis: Decidi tu.[4][12]
  3. Strengthened by stesso, anche, nemmeno or proprio: l'hai detto tu stesso.[4][10]

Noun

  1. The familiar form of address, as in dare del tu (to address someone as tu) and a tu per tu (face to face).[4][11]

Word family

  • tuteggiare
  • tueggiare

Usage notes

After come and quanto in comparisons, Italian uses te (corre quanto te), and te also in exclamations such as povero te!.[11] In Tuscany tu causes doubling of the following consonant.[12][10][13] Popular Tuscan elides it before a vowel (t'avevi ragione).[9][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3923
  7. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 4, 1622
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  10. ^ a b c Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  11. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  12. ^ 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
  13. ^ Canepari, Luciano, DiPI: Dizionario di pronuncia italiana, online ed., dipionline.it

Related etymologies

  • no · also from Latin
  • cosa · also from Latin
  • a · also from Latin
  • mio · also from Latin
  • uno · also from Latin
  • si · also from Latin
  • sapere · also from Latin
  • fare · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Tu.” Etymologically, 21 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/it/tu. Accessed 22 Oct. 2026.

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