todo (Spanish)
Where does "todo" come from?
The Spanish determiner 'todo', meaning 'all' or 'every', is inherited directly from Old Spanish 'todo'[1]. This earlier form derives from the Latin adjective 'tōtus', meaning 'all' or 'whole'[1][2]. The deeper origins of the Latin term are less certain, though it has been tentatively connected to the Proto-Italic word '*toutā', meaning 'people' or 'citizenship', which descends from the Proto-Indo-European root '*tewtéh₂'[3][5].
Open questions
- The connection between Latin 'tōtus' and the Proto-Indo-European noun '*tewtéh₂' is uncertain and disputed. [3] [4]
- The derivation of Proto-Indo-European '*tewtéh₂' from a root meaning 'to be strong' or 'swell' is doubted, with some scholars proposing a non-Indo-European substrate loan instead. [4]
Full etymology tree
- todo (Spanish), 'all; every'
- inherited todo (Old Spanish), 'all; each; every'
- derived totum (Latin), 'inflection of tōtus:'
- derived totus (Latin), 'whole, all, entire, total, complete, every part'
- derived totum (Latin), 'inflection of tōtus:'
- inherited todo (Old Spanish), 'all; each; every'
Ancestors
- todo (Old Spanish)
- totus (Latin)
Cognates and doublets
- tot (Catalan)
- tout (French)
Sources
- todo (Spanish) - Wiktionary
- todo (Old Spanish) - Wiktionary
- totus (Latin) - Wiktionary
- tewtéh₂ (Proto-Indo-European) - Wiktionary
- toutā (Proto-Italic) - Wiktionary
Updated October 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris