vostro

Forms

vostro (feminine vostra, masculine plural vostri, feminine plural vostre)^[1] Old forms include vostru (1186), vosso (13th century, in the Laudi spirituali) and vosto (14th century).^[2][3] Sardinian has bostru, and the GDLI records bòstru, vòsso and vòstru among its old forms.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin voster (“your”), from the accusative vostrum, the popular form of classical vester.^[2][5][6][1] The form with ⟨o⟩ is recorded from the 2nd century AD;^[2][3][7] DELI, quoting Tekavčić, explains that popular Latin used it in place of the classical word, that it is already in Plautus, and that the pairing of nōs (“we”) with vōs (“you”) made it easy for it to be remade again and again on the model of noster (“our”).^[2][3][7] The word is panromance: French vôtre, Occitan vostre, Catalan vostre, Spanish vuestro, Portuguese vosso, Sardinian bostru and Romanian vostru.^[5][8][9]

The DÉRom reconstructs the Proto-Romance possessive from cognates in every Romance variety, with a reduced type in /-ss-/ confined to Ligurian, Tuscan, Romansh and Galician-Portuguese;^[10] to this type belongs Old Italian vosso.^[3] Latin formed the possessive on the pronoun with the suffix -ter, which marked a contrast between two, as in the word for “other”;^[5][11] Wiktionary traces the classical form to Proto-Italic *westeros.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is the form vostru in the Carta fabrianese of 1186, a document from the Marche, in the sense “belonging to you”.^[2][6] The GDLI quotes it: de lo vostru et nostra sientia (with your and our knowledge).^[4] The Tuscan form vostro appears at the end of the 13th century in the Novellino.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The plural of respect, used to address a single person of higher rank, is recorded in 1242–1243 in the letters of Guido Fava,^[2] and it survives in titles such as Vostra Eccellenza and Vostra Signoria;^[12] the contraction vossignoria is in Paolo Segneri.^[7] Dante uses the word for the whole party of the person addressed when he makes Farinata hear that i vostri non appreser ben quell'arte (your side never learned that art well).^[12]

The sense of kinship, friendship and dependence (vostro padre, il vostro medico) is dated by DELI to Giovan Battista Fagiuoli, before 1742.^[2] The pronoun il vostro, “what is yours”, is recorded by Petrocchi in 1891, and elliptical colloquial uses such as dite la vostra (say what you think) by 1815.^[2][12] With nouns of kinship the possessive takes no article in the singular (vostra madre), but it does in the plural and with diminutives or affectionate forms (i vostri fratelli, la vostra sorellina).^[6][13]

Timeline

• 1186 – Vostru is recorded in the Carta fabrianese.^[2][6]
• 1242–1243 – Guido Fava uses the plural of respect.^[2]
• 13th century – The form vosso appears in the Laudi spirituali.^[3]
• End of the 13th century – The Tuscan form vostro appears in the Novellino.^[2]
• 14th century – The form vosto is recorded.^[3]
• Before 1742 – Fagiuoli uses it for relatives and friends.^[2]
• 1891 – Petrocchi records the pronoun use.^[2]

Meanings

Determiner

1. your (of more than one person): belonging to you, owned by you: la vostra macchina è in seconda fila.^[6][13][14]
2. Being part of you or proper to you: conosco i vostri gusti.^[6][15]
3. Done, said or written by you: abbiamo letto la vostra proposta.^[6][13]
4. Related to you by kinship, friendship or work: vostro zio, i vostri colleghi.^[6][14][13]
5. (formal) In titles and in the plural of respect, your, addressed to one person: Vostra Eccellenza.^[12][6]

Pronoun

1. yours: il nostro giardino è più piccolo del vostro.^[1][12]
2. (plural) i vostri, your family, friends or side.^[12][14]

Word family

• vossignoria

Related words

• voi
• nostro
• Latin vester
• French vôtre

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 l m n 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 f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4091
4. ^ 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, 1021
5. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 1064
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
10. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
11. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 475
12. ^ a b c d e f Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse