uopo

Forms

uopo (literary, very rare) m (plural uopi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin opus (“need”), used in the phrase opus est (“it is necessary”), literally “there is work”.^{[2][3][4][5][1]}

The phrase survives widely in Romance: Old French a ues and Old Occitan a ops “as needed”, Catalan ops, Old Spanish huebos, Sardinian obus, Romanian op and Aromanian op.^[3][6][7][1] The reversed est opus gave the Old French verb estovoir (“to be necessary”), from which came Old northern Italian stover.^[8][6]

Bembo held that Tuscan took the word from Provençal;^[2] DELI finds this unconfirmed.^[2] The Latin noun, meaning “work”, is from Proto-Italic *opos and Proto-Indo-European *h₃ép-os (“work”), like Sanskrit अपस् (ápas, “work, action”).^[9][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI and GRADIT date the first record to Dante between 1313 and 1319, with the sense “need, necessity”;^[2][4][10] Zingarelli gives an earlier date, about 1250.^[2][4][10] In the Purgatorio the man who sees a need and waits to be asked is already unkind: ché quale aspetta prego e l'uopo vede, / malignamente già si mette al nego.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio also uses the word for “profit, advantage”, a sense now obsolete.^[8][13][10] Old texts sometimes write it uuopo or vuopo;^[2][8] Ageno took the doubling for a mere spelling, Castellani for a Pisan and Lucchese feature.^[2][8] Bembo also recorded a shortened uo’.^[2]

By 1540 Citolini already judged the word an intolerable archaism, yet it lived on in poetry and prose.^[2] Landino glossed it as old Florentine for “need”.^[11] Today it survives in the phrases all'uopo and essere or fare d'uopo, usually with a joking or pedantic tone.^[5][14]

Timeline

• 1313–1319 – Dante uses uopo “need”.^[2]
• 14th century – Boccaccio uses it for “advantage”.^[8]
• 1540 – Citolini calls it an archaism.^[2]
• 16th century – Caro uses esser d'uopo “to be necessary”.^[8][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) need, necessity, mostly in the singular.^[4][12][5]
2. (literary, often jocular) In all'uopo, when needed, for the purpose: Tieni da parte qualche moneta, all'uopo ti servirà.^[12][5][14]
3. (literary) In essere d'uopo and fare d'uopo, to be necessary.^[4][12][5]
4. (obsolete) Advantage, profit.^[10][15]

Related words

• opera
• Latin opus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
8. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3956
9. ^ 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 Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 563
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1030
14. ^ a b Duro, Aldo (ed.) (1986–1994), Vocabolario della lingua italiana, Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana; online ed. treccani.it/vocabolario (2008 copy)
15. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli