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Uomo as an Indeterminate Pronoun

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

C. Barrett Brown
C. Barrett Brown*
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
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Extract

After serving for a few centuries in the several Romanic languages as an indeterminate pronoun, homo disappeared from general use in all except French. The present study, in supplementing the limited discussion of grammarians, briefly reviews the history and the use of this pronoun in Italian and deals mainly with the causes that led to its desuetude.

To account for the rise of the pronominal function of uomo, Meyer-Lübke suggests French influence. But the general occurrence in Romance of homo with the value of an indefinite pronoun points rather conclusively to an antecedent development in Latin. Examination of the proper Latin authors reveals that homo was actually employed with pronominal force, and there is consequently little necessity of attributing the rise of this use of uomo to foreign influence.

Uomo (<homo), like French on, was in origin a masculine substantive in the nominative case. We shall see to what extent these characteristic traits were preserved.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 12 , Issue 1-Part1: January-March , March 1936 , pp. 35 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © 1936 Linguistic Society of America

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References

1 There has recently appeared a scholarly dissertation by Rita Schlaepfer, Die Ausdrucksformen für “man” im Italienischen (Zürich, 1933), which treats uomo and its synonymous expressions from the historical, descriptive, and geographical points of view.

2 Gram. des langues romanes 3.108 (New York, 1923).

3 Cf. Silviae vel potius Aetheriae peregrinatio ad loca sancta,2 ed. W. Heraeus (Heidelberg, 1921):

ubi homo desiderium suum compleri videt, 13.1; 36.3; Vulgate, Matt. 4.4:

Non in solo pane vivit homo;

Kleine Texte zum Alexanderroman, ed. F. Phister (Heidelberg, 1910):

ubi habet homo prosperitatem, 24.12; 8.32; 10.24;

Disciplina Clericalis des Petrus Alfonsi, ed. A. Hilka u. W. Söderhjelm (Heidelberg, 1911):

quo modo debet homo comedere coram rege, 40.13.

Grammarians cite many other examples.

4 Novo dizionario universale (Milano, 1917–19), Vol. 2, s.v.

5 Italiana dei primi secoli (Città di Castello, 1912).

6 Schlaepfer classifies the uses of uomo in three groups: Negations, comparisons, and conditions.

7 Dialogo delle lingue, ed. G. de Robertis (Lanciano, 1912).

8 Uomo may still be found today in this construction; it does not appear to be a bona-fide indefinite.

9 Ed. E. Sicardi (Strasbourg, s.d.).

10 This use of uomo has been treated at length by W. Meyer-Lübke, Ital. Gram. 222 (Leipzig, 1890); and Bertoni, Flecchia, Salvioni, et al.

11 Ed. G. Brognoligo (Bari, 1910), Vol. 1.

12 Ed. G. Rua (Bari, 1927), Vol. 1.

13 Ed. V. Turri (Bari, 1912), Vol. 1.

14 Ed. C. Teoli (Milano, 1863).

15 P. 58.

16 Ed. M. D. Busnelli (Bari, 1931), Vol. 1.

17 Ed. V. Spampanato (Bari, 1927). Also: I parenti s'hanno quali la ventura gli dà, gl'amici quali l'huomo se li sa scerre, Letter of A. Sertini to Galileo, in Le opere di G. Galilei, Edizione Nazionale 10.411 (Firenze, 1900).

18 P. 58.

19 In Lirici Marinisti 108, ed. B. Croce (Bari, 1910).

20 Ibid. 34.

21 Ibid. 337.

22 Cf. ‘Hat uomo nur eine sich dem unbestimmten Pronomen annähernde Bedeutung’, L. G. Blanc, Gramm. d. ital Sprache 310, Anm. (Halle, 1884). Also, ‘uomo presso a poco = on‘, G. A. Scartazzini, Enciclopedia dantesca (Milano, 1896–1905), Vol. 2, s.v.

23 Also, il mondo, il cuore, la penna; manti; qualcheduno, qualcuno; altri; colui, coloro, quei (che); neuno, niuno, nullo; gli uomini; ognuno; etc. and the infinitive and present participle constructions.

24 Littera se scribit is cited by C. H. Grandgent, Introduction to Vulgar Latin 52 (Boston, 1907).

25 The indefinite reflexive, it will be recalled, may be construed personally with a thing, person, or clause as its subject; impersonally and intransitively alone, with an adjective, adverb, present participle, or prepositional phrase; and impersonally and transitively with a person or thing as the object.

26 While it is true that monosyllabic forms om, on, and uom appeared, ending in a consonant they must have been felt too aberrant for general acceptance or for retention in the language long enough for further phonological development, if possible, more in consonance with the orthography of the language.