Reconstruction:Latin/addessum
Latin[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Perhaps a contraction of a phrase like *ad id ipsum [tempus] (literally “at this/that very time”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Adverb[edit]
*a(d)dessum (Proto-Italo-Western-Romance)
Reconstruction notes[edit]
If the foregoing etymology is correct, one might have expected an original */ad(e)ˈdepsu/. The actual */a(d)ˈdɛssu/ implied by the descendants can be explained as the result of an early remodelling per ad pressum (“near” ≈ /apˈprɛssu/). The similarity of their reflexes is clear in any case. If the single /d/ of the Italian adesso is original, the construction may have started as *ad ipsum [tempus]. In that case the form with geminate */dd/, which is implied by the Western Romance outcomes (as well as the Italian variant addesso), may have developed by analogy with the /pp/ of the aforementioned ad pressum. |
Descendants[edit]
- Dalmatian:
- Italo-Romance:
- Italian: adesso
- North Italian:
- Gallo-Romance:
References[edit]
- AIS: Sprach- und Sachatlas Italiens und der Südschweiz [Linguistic and Ethnographic Atlas of Italy and Southern Switzerland] – map 1533: “dove tu cuci adesso” – on navigais-web.pd.istc.cnr.it
- Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “ad id ipsum”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volumes 24: Refonte A–Aorte, page 142