Etymologically
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nullus

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈnuːl.lʊs][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈnul.lus][1]

Forms

nūllus (feminine nūlla, neuter nūllum); first/second-declension pronoun (pronominal declension or non-pronominal declension)[1]

Etymology

It goes back to *ne oinolos (“not a little one”), from the negative ne- and a diminutive of ūnus (“one”) (older ⟨oinos⟩), from Proto-Indo-European *óynos (“one”).[2][1] ūllus (“any”) is probably a later formation; by the surface analysis ⟨nūllus⟩ is ⟨ne⟩ + ⟨ūllus⟩, “not any”.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found in a royal law and in Livius Andronicus;[3] Plautus has nūlla contrōversia mihi tēcum erit “I shall have no quarrel with you”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Nūllus means “no, not any”; as a noun it supplies the genitive and ablative of nēmō (nūllīus, nūllō) and means “no one”.[2][4] A following negative turns it into an affirmative (nūllus nōn “everyone”).[2] In early and colloquial Latin it serves as an emphatic “not”, and as a complement it means “non-existent, not there”.[2][1]

English null “void of legal force”, recorded from the 1560s, comes from it through French nul.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 280–200 BC – First found in Livius Andronicus.[3]
  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: nūllan tibi lingua est? “have you no tongue?”[2][3]
  • 1560s – English null, through French.[5]

Meanings

Determiner

  1. no, not any.[2][4]
  2. (as noun) No one, nobody;[2][1] (neuter) nothing.[2][1]
  3. nūllus nōn, every; everyone.[2]
  4. (colloquial) Not at all.[1]
  5. Non-existent, not there.[2]

Word family

  • nōnnūllus
  • nūllātenus
  • nūllusdum
  • annūllō

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com