quant

Forms

quant (feminine quanta, masculine plural quants, feminine plural quantes)^[1] The final /t/ is silent in Central, Northern and North-Western Catalan and pronounced in Balearic and Valencian.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan quant, which is inherited from Latin quantus (“how great, how much”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan quant, Spanish cuanto, Italian quanto, Portuguese quanto and Romanian cât.^[6][1]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *kʷāntos, from the interrogative stem Proto-Indo-European *kʷos.^[1]

The DCVB takes the old phrases ⟨quant que⟩ and ⟨quant que quant⟩ to be learned adaptations of quantumcumque and similar Latin forms.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines places the word at the origins of the language, in documents of the pre-literary period.^[3] In a document of 1080–1095 a man complains that someone de quant avia no me'n jachia re, "of all he had left me nothing".^[3] The first record thus shows the relative sense "all that", which was frequent in the old language.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the old language quant was much used for "everything that", often with tot: the Homilies d'Organyà say that all a man has, says and does in this world is vanity (tot quant om ha), and Llull and Bernat Metge use the same construction.^[3] With a following verb in the subjunctive, quant que meant "however much" or "even though" in documents of 1306.^[3]

The phrase quant a "as for" is recorded from 1291.^[3] Uns quants "some, a few" appears in Robert's cookery book of 1520, and modern writers use un quant temps "some time".^[3] The correlative quant més ... tant més "the more ... the more" was common in old texts, but the literary language today prefers com més ... més.^[3]

Old texts also wrote quant for quan "when";^[3] Llull's Proverbis have it in this sense.^[7]

Timeline

• 1080–1095 – de quant avia in a Catalan document.^[3]
• late 12th century – tot quant in the Homilies d'Organyà.^[3]
• 1291 – first record of quant a “as for”.^[3]
• 1381 – Eiximenis uses quants mals “how many evils”.^[8]
• 1520 – uns quants in Robert's cookery book.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia lists the word as an adjective and adverb of degree.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (interrogative) how much, how many: Quants germans tens?^[5][2][1]
2. (with the indefinite article) Some, a few, a certain number: uns quants llibres.^[5][1]

Pronoun

1. How many or how much (of people or things already mentioned).^[5][2]
2. (used absolutely) What price; how much time or distance: Quant costa?^[5][2]
3. (relative, often with tot) All that, everything that.^[2][3]

Adverb

1. To what extent, how: placed before an adjective or adverb.^[10][5]
2. quant a: as for, regarding.^[10][5]

Word family

• quantia
• quant a

Related words

• quantitat
• quantificar
• quàntic
• quantum
• Latin quantus
• Spanish cuanto

Usage notes

The DCVB heads a second quant, an adverb and conjunction, which is the old spelling of quan "when"; the Llull glossary calls it the older variant of that word.^[2][7]

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 Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. quant
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. 6, 895
4. ^ Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 765
5. ^ a b c d e f g Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. quant
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6933
7. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. quant
8. ^ Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. quant
9. ^ Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. quant
10. ^ a b Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. quant