Etymologically
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uso

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Pronunciation

Forms

uso m (plural usi)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ūsus (“use, practice; experience; benefit”), a noun formed on the past participle of ūtor (“to use”).[2][3][4][1][5] The participle itself, used early as a noun, was the base of a new Late Latin verb, the source of usare, first recorded in the 8th-century Formulae of Sens.[2] The same noun is French us (now obsolete), Occitan us, Catalan us, Spanish uso and Portuguese uso.[3][6]

The Latin verb had older forms with a diphthong, ⟨oeti⟩ and ⟨oesus⟩, and goes back to Proto-Italic *oissos for the participle; a Paelignian participle meaning “used” matches it.[7][1][3] De Vaan reports a proposal that the root first meant “to fetch for oneself” and compares the Greek future Ancient Greek οἴσω (oísō, “I will fetch”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃eyt- (“to take along”).[7] Nocentini thinks it risky to go beyond the Italic base.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEI has the form uzo “experience” in the 13th century, and the GDLI quotes Giacomo da Lentini's “l'uso fa 'nvilute” (custom makes it base).[8][9] DELI's earliest dated sense is “habit, custom” in the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, followed by “constant practice” in Dante's Paradiso (1313–1319).[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “ability to use something” is dated before 1342, in Domenico Cavalca, which is GRADIT's date for the word, and the legal right to use another's property and take its fruits appears in Giovanni Villani before 1348.[2][4] The linguistic sense, the usual way of speaking or writing of a person, a community or an age, is recorded in 1516, in Giovan Francesco Fortunio's grammar.[2] Tommaseo still gave “custom, practice” first.[10]

Commercial Italian uses uso before a noun for imitation materials and for the intended use of premises, as in uso ufficio.[4][11] In finance, uso was the customary term of payment of a bill of exchange, borrowed into German in 1611 and into English, from Italian or Spanish, in 1704.[12] Usura “wear”, by contrast, is an adaptation of French usure.[2]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Late Latin forms a verb on the participle, the source of usare.[2]
  • 13th century – DEI records uzo “experience”.[8]
  • End of the 13th century – The Novellino uses uso “custom”.[2]
  • 1313–1319 – Dante uses it for “constant practice”.[2]
  • Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it for the ability to use something.[2][4]
  • 1516 – Giovan Francesco Fortunio uses it for linguistic usage.[2]
  • 1611 – German Uso is recorded in commerce.[12]
  • 1704 – English uso is recorded.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. use, the act or way of using something: L’uso del telefono in classe è vietato.[4][13][11]
  2. The ability or possibility of using something: Dopo l’incidente ha recuperato l’uso della mano.[4][13]
  3. Purpose, function: per uso domestico.[4][11]
  4. (commerce) Before a noun, an imitation of a material or the intended use of something: uso pelle, uso ufficio.[4][11]
  5. (law) The right to use another's property and take its fruits within one's own needs.[4][11]
  6. custom, habit, practice: È uso del paese suonare le campane a mezzogiorno.[13][14][2]
  7. (linguistics) usage, the way a language is used at a time or place.[13][2]

Adjective

  1. (literary) accustomed, used to: uomini poi, a mal più ch'a bene usi (Dante).[4][13][11]

Word family

  • usare
  • usato
  • usanza
  • usabile
  • usitato
  • usuale
  • usualmente
  • sopruso
  • usucapione
  • usufrutto
  • usura
  • usurpare
  • utile
  • Latin usus

Usage notes

The adjective is literary and Nocentini treats it as a separate borrowing from the Latin participle, dated before 1306 in Iacopone da Todi.[3][2] Pietro Bembo noted in 1525 that prose writers used uso for usato, as they used cerco and desto.[2] Zingarelli instead derives the adjective from usare.[15] Phrases with the noun include fare uso di “to use”, fuori uso “out of order”, d'uso “customary” and istruzioni per l'uso “instructions for use”.[4][14][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3964
  9. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 592
  10. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 4, 1696
  11. ^ a b c d e f 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 Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
  13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ a b Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  15. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  16. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli