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nemo

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Etymology and origin of the Latin word nemo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 280–200 BC, Livius Andronicus

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈneː.moː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈnɛː.mo][1]

Forms

nēmō m or f (genitive nēminis)[1]

Etymology

It is a compound of the negative ne- and an old form of homō (“man”), from ⟨*nehemo⟩.[2][3] The second part is the archaic ⟨hemō⟩, which Festus records as an old word for “man”, and the TLL, following de Vaan, traces it to Proto-Indo-European *dʰǵʰm̥-ōn-, the root of Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 (guma, “man”) and Old Lithuanian žmuõ (“man”).[3][1] Livingston explains it instead from ⟨*ne homō⟩.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Livius Andronicus on.[4]

Semantic evolution

Nēmō means “nobody, no one”; in Classical Latin its genitive and ablative are usually replaced by nūllīus and nūllō, though nēminis and nēmine occur in Ennius, Plautus, Cato and later.[2][5] Nōn nēmō means “some people”, nēmō nōn “everyone”, and with nouns of persons it is an adjective (nēmō homō “no man”).[2] It can also mean “a nobody, a person of no importance”.[2]

The final -o is long in Horace and short in Martial and Juvenal.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 280–200 BC – First found in Livius Andronicus.[4]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses the genitive nēminis.[2][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it for “a nobody”.[2][4]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. nobody, no one;[2][5] nēmō alius, no one else;[2][5] nēmō ūnus, not a single person.[2][5]
  2. nōn nēmō, someone, some people;[2] nēmō nōn, everyone.[2]
  3. A nobody, a person of no account.[2]
  4. (as an adjective with nouns of persons) No: nēmō homō, no man.[2]

Word family

  • nōnnēmō

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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  5. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
Cite this entry

“Nemo.” Etymologically, 18 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/la/nemo. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

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