Etymologically
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ve

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Pronunciation

Forms

ve (unstressed; older literary vel “ve lo” and ven “ve ne”)[2]

Etymology

It is the form vi takes before the unstressed pronouns ⟨lo⟩, ⟨la⟩, ⟨li⟩, ⟨le⟩ and the particle ⟨ne⟩, both as the pronoun “you, to you” and as the adverb “there”.[3][4][5] Nocentini explains the ⟨e⟩ as assimilation to the following particles, whose vowel is not ⟨i⟩.[6] Its origin is that of ⟨vi⟩: inherited from Latin ibī (“there”), a derivative of is (“that; he”), which also gave ivi.[6][7]

The adverb of place took on the value of the second person plural and replaced the old Old Italian vo, from Latin vōs (“you”): according to Rohlfs, ⟨vi scrivo⟩ first meant “I write there”.[6][7] Parodi had proposed in 1889 that an accusative ⟨*ve⟩ from ⟨vōs⟩ and a dative ⟨vi⟩ from ⟨ibī⟩ merged, but DELI notes that this view, which Parodi himself found too abstract, has not been accepted.[7] Tommaseo compared it with me, te and ce in the same position.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates ve to Boccaccio, 1348–1353.[3] The GDLI quotes it earlier, in Purgatorio 17, where the terrace of sloth “ve ne martira” (torments you for it), and in the Decameron, where the narrator means to show it to the listeners “con un'altra assai brieve”.[9]

Semantic evolution

In 1525 Pietro Bembo noted that poets could say vi or ve as the rhyme required (farvi, darve), and in old literary Italian ve could stand for vi at the end of a word without another particle, as in Petrarch's ricontarve.[7][5] Older literary Italian also joined it to a following lo or ne: Metastasio's vel perdoni and Alfieri's ven prega.[2] In several dialects ve is the ordinary form in every position.[5]

In modern Italian the combinations are fixed: ve lo, ve ne, and after an imperative, infinitive or gerund the forms written as one word (portatevelo, andatevene).[3][2] As an adverb it is now formal, as in ve ne sono molti “there are many of them”.[4][10]

Timeline

  • Early 14th century – Dante uses ve ne in the Purgatorio.[9]
  • 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses ve lo in the Decameron.[3][9]
  • 1525 – Bembo allows vi and ve alike in rhyme.[7]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. To you, you (plural, or polite singular), before lo, la, li, le and ne: ve lo spiego dopo, non ve ne pentirete.[3][4][2][1]
  2. In reflexive verbs of the second person plural: ve ne siete andati presto.[2][10]

Adverb

  1. (formal) there, in that place, before the same pronouns: ve ne sono ancora due.[3][4][10]

Usage notes

Old Italian also had an unrelated ve “where”, short for ove, and an interjection ve’ “look!”, from vedi; both are found in Dante.[11] Ve is also a regional name of the letter v, usually called vu.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, 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 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 Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  6. ^ a b c Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  7. ^ a b c d e Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  8. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  9. ^ 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. 21, 687
  10. ^ a b c Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  11. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3996