/ˈdɪt.oʊ/·adverb·1625, in English commercial and bookkeeping texts, recorded as 'ditto' meaning 'the aforesaid month' in mercantile correspondence·Established
Origin
Ditto traces from Italian 'detto' (past participle of 'dire', to say), back through Latin 'dictus/dicere' to PIE *deyḱ- (to show, to point), making it a cousin of 'dictate', 'verdict', 'index', 'teach', and 'token' — a word meaning 'said' that became a sign for pure repetition.
Definition
Used to indicate that something already stated applies equally to the case just mentioned.
The Full Story
Italian17th centurywell-attested
The word 'ditto' enters English from the Tuscan Italian dialectal form 'ditto', itself derived from standard Italian 'detto', meaning 'said' or 'aforementioned'. This is the past participle of the Latinverb 'dicere', meaning 'to say' or 'to tell'. In Italian mercantile and bookkeeping practice, 'detto' (and its contracted variant 'ditto') was used in ledgers and accounts to mean 'the aforesaid' or 'the same as mentioned above', allowing
Did you know?
The ditto mark (〃) is one of the few symbols in written English with no phonological form — you cannot pronounce it, only interpret it. Yet it descends from a root, PIE *deyḱ-, that originally meant to point with the hand. The index finger gesture became a verb (dicere: to say), became a past participle (detto: said), became a commercial shorthand, and
repeated entries. Over time the term broadened beyond bookkeeping to mean 'the same thing' in general speech, and eventually became a colloquial affirmation meaning 'I agree' or 'same here'. The Latin 'dicere' descends from the Proto-Indo-European root *deyk-, meaning 'to show' or 'to point out', with an extended sense of 'to say' or 'to proclaim' by the time of Latin. This PIE root is extraordinarily productive: it yields Latin 'index' (one who points out), 'iudex' (judge, literally 'one who shows the law'), 'indicare' (to indicate), and 'dicare' (to proclaim). In Greek it gives 'deiknynai' (to show) and 'dikē' (justice, right). In English via Germanic the same root *deyk- produced 'teach' (via Old English 'tæcan', from Proto-Germanic *taikijan) and 'token'. The trajectory from 'pointing out' to 'saying' to 'the aforesaid' to 'same as above' represents a classic narrowing-then-generalisation semantic arc, anchored in the practical demands of Renaissance Italian commerce. Key roots: *deyk- (Proto-Indo-European: "to show, to point out; by extension to proclaim or say"), dicere (Latin: "to say, to speak, to tell"), detto / ditto (Italian: "said, the aforesaid, the same").