Etymologically
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uno

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Pronunciation

Forms

uno m, una f (plural, as a pronoun, uni, une).[1] Before a vowel and most consonants the masculine is shortened to un (un cane, un albero); uno stays before s plus consonant, z, gn, ps and x (uno zaino, uno studente). The feminine is elided to un’ before a vowel (un’isola).[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ūnus (“one; single, alone”).[5][6][7][1] The Latin word served both as a numeral and in the sense “same” (“uno tempore” “at one time”); already in Plautus it can mark a single person (“unam vidi mulierem” “I saw a woman”), the start of its use as an indefinite article.[5][8] In all the Romance languages “ūnus” also became the indefinite article, set against the definite one.[6]

The same word is French un, Occitan un, Catalan un, Spanish uno, Portuguese um, Sardinian unu and Romanian un, and Dalmatian yoin.[6][9][10]

Latin “ūnus” is from Old Latin oinos, from Proto-Italic *oinos and Proto-Indo-European *h₁óynos (“one, single”).[1][11] The basic sense was “alone, unique”, kept in part by Latin and by Lithuanian víenas (“one; alone”), and in Ancient Greek οἰνή (oinḗ, “the one on a die”).[6][11] The numeral sense is shared with Germanic, as in Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (ains) and English one, and with Celtic, as in Old Irish óen and Welsh un.[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Ritmo laurenziano of the late 12th century, in d'in un tempo “at one and the same time”, with the sense “one only, a single”.[5] Nocentini and GRADIT date the word to the second half of the 12th century.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The indefinite article is recorded in Dante's Vita nuova (1293–1294), the numeral for a quantity and the pronoun “someone” in his works of 1300–1313, and the pronoun “this one” in Boccaccio (1340–1342).[5] Before a number it could mean “about”, in Boccaccio (1348–1353).[5] The noun “the number one and its sign” is recorded before 1565 in Benedetto Varchi, and the literary sense “united, undivided” in 1891.[5] Manzoni's line Liberi non sarem se non siamo uni (“We shall not be free unless we are one”) uses that sense in the plural.[3]

Phrases such as numero uno “the best, the leader” and uno o due “one or two, a few” are common.[12][7] The feminine una “one” passed into the 19th-century Polari slang of English, by way of the lingua franca.[13]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – D'in un tempo in the Ritmo laurenziano.[5]
  • 1293–1294 – Dante uses uno as the indefinite article.[5]
  • 1300–1313 – Dante uses it as a numeral and as the pronoun “someone”.[5]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for “about, roughly”.[5]
  • Before 1565 – Benedetto Varchi uses uno as a noun for the number one.[5]
  • Mid-19th century – Una “one” is recorded in English Polari.[13]
  • 1891 – The literary sense “united, undivided” is recorded.[5]

Meanings

Numeral

  1. one: the number 1, the first natural number after zero: Ho un fratello e due sorelle.[7][3][4]
  2. After a noun, as an ordinal: first: pagina uno, l'articolo uno.[7][14]
  3. The same: essere un cuore e un'anima, to be very close.[7]
  4. (literary) Undivided, united: una nazione una e libera.[3][5]

Article

  1. a, an: the indefinite article, for someone or something not yet identified: C'è uno studente che ti cerca.[3][1]
  2. In exclamations, “such a”: Ho una fame![3]

Pronoun

  1. someone, a person: È venuto uno a chiedere di te.[5][1]
  2. One (of two or more), with altro: l'uno e l'altro, l'un l'altro “each other”.[7][15]

Word family

Usage notes

Un before a masculine noun is never written with an apostrophe, while the feminine un’ is (un amico, un’amica).[2] Before pn careful usage keeps uno (uno pneumatico), but un is spreading.[2] For the hour, l'una is the usual form.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e f g De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  8. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 556
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  10. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  11. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  12. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  13. ^ a b Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  14. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  15. ^ Wikizionario (Italian Wiktionary), it.wiktionary.org