aquest

Forms

aquest (feminine aquesta, masculine plural aquests or aquestos, feminine plural aquestes)^[1] Valencian uses este, esta in place of aquest, aquesta, a continuation of the medieval short form; the line between the two was settled only slowly, and the short form survives further north in a few set phrases such as est any.^[2] In Eastern Catalan the real masculine plural is aquets, with aquestos only in familiar speech;^[3] aquestos is commoner in southern Western Catalan and is the plural of Eivissa, recorded there in the first half of the 16th century.^[3] Before a consonant the singular is widely pronounced without its -s-, aquet; the full form in pause is typical of the mountains and of Mallorca, where Coromines heard it at Sóller and Cabrera.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *eccum iste, formed from eccum (“look, here he is”) and the demonstrative iste (“that (near you)”).^[2][4][1] The combination first served as an emphatic form of the simple demonstrative, which Old Catalan kept as est; both are found from the beginnings of the language.^[2]

The same compound is Occitan aquest, Italian questo and Old Spanish aqueste.^[2][1] Coromines rejects the older theories that brought in Latin atque (“and also”): the forms with ⟨aq-⟩ in Catalan, Occitan, Italian and Spanish come from ⟨eccum⟩ alone, which had replaced classical ecce in the spoken language.^[3] Wiktionary explains ⟨eccum⟩ as a contraction of ⟨ecce eum⟩ “see him”.^[1] Plautus and Terence already join ⟨eccum⟩ and ⟨eccam⟩ with ⟨ipse⟩ and ⟨ipsa⟩, the pattern of aqueix.^[3]

Coromines sees a dissimilation in the passage of ⟨ecc(u)-iste⟩ to the Catalan word, as in aquell, and the change of an open initial ⟨e-⟩ to ⟨a-⟩ also seen in ací and aquí.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Both forms are recorded from the beginnings, in the 12th and 13th centuries: the Homilies d'Organyà have est, and aquest appears in texts of the same time.^[2][5] In Llull the two still alternate freely, and Jaume I's chronicle has both estes noves and aquesta cosa.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cerverí already prefers aquest for most uses, leaving est to set combinations such as est món fals.^[2] By the 15th century the short form was restricted in the north to repeated phrases, while Valencia kept este, esta on the basis of the medieval form, helped by the neighbouring Aragonese and Castilian.^[2] Old Catalan had a three-way system in which aquest pointed to what is near the speaker, aqueix to what is near the listener and aquell to what is far from both.^[5]

Applied to time, the word marks the present or the nearest moment: aquest any, aquesta nit.^[4][5] It also points emphatically to someone or something, and introduces a thought that is about to be stated.^[5]

Timeline

• 1175–1224 – the Homilies d'Organyà, with est beside aquest.^[2][5]
• 1244–1274 – Jaume I's Llibre dels fets uses both aquest and est.^[2]
• 1263 – aquest in the court book of Alcoi.^[6]
• c. 1274 – Llull opens a book with Comensa aquest Libre de Demostracions.^[7]
• 1461 – the Catalan Bible of that year still has sta nit.^[2]

Meanings

Determiner

1. this, pointing to what is near the speaker in space: Aquest llibre és meu.^[8][4]
2. this, of the present time: aquesta setmana, aquest estiu.^[8][4]

Pronoun

1. this one; in the plural, these.^[8][1]

Related words

• est
• aqueix
• aquell
• Latin eccum
• Occitan aquest
• Old Spanish aqueste

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 716
3. ^ a b c d e f Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 3, 717
4. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. aquest
5. ^ a b c d e Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. aquest
6. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. aquest
7. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. aquest
8. ^ a b c Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. aquest