Etymology

numero uno

Today it means: The most important of a group. Full definition →

Spanish número uno ← Italian numero uno
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The story

  1. Italian · borrowed fromnumero uno
  2. Spanish · borrowed fromnúmero uno
  3. English todaynumero uno

From either Spanish número uno or Italian numero uno. Piecewise doublet of number one.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.