Etymologically
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quota

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈkwəʊ.tə/[1]
  • US: /ˈkwoʊ.tə/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin quota (“share, quota”),[2][3][4][5][6] used as a noun from the 13th century,[2] short for Latin quota pars (“how great a part”),[2][3][7][8] the feminine of quotus (“of what number; bearing what proportion”),[2][3][4] from quot (“how many”).[2][5][7] Skeat relates quot to quī (“who”),[9] and Klein compares Ancient Greek πόσος (pósos, “how much”).[7] Skeat derived the English word through Italian quota,[9] and the OED compares cuota (1487) and the Italian word (1673).[2] It shares its source with quote and quotient.[3][4][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The share that each person or district must contribute to a total, especially of soldiers, money or supplies: 1618, in Selden's Historie of Tithes.[2][11] Barnhart dates it to 1668 and Etymonline to the 1660s, both noting that the earliest uses refer to soldiers or supplies levied from a town or district.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a share or allocation in general followed in 1688.[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as a share or proportion assigned to each.[12] In 17th- and 18th-century thieves' cant a quota was a share of the plunder.[13] The 19th and 20th centuries made it a word of regulation: the minimum number of votes needed to elect a candidate under proportional representation (1857),[2] a maximum quantity of goods that may be produced, imported or exported (1891),[2] and, in the United States from 1921, a maximum number of immigrants admitted to a country.[2][4][3] The quota system first referred to immigration (1924);[4] from 1956 a quota could also be a minimum number of members of minorities or of women sought for a workforce or student body,[2] and Barnhart notes this use in the United States from about 1963.[4] The verb, to impose a quota on, is recorded from 1755.[2]

Timeline

  • 1618 – a share to be contributed to a total.[2][11]
  • 1688 – a share or allocation.[2]
  • c. 1698 – thieves' cant, a share of plunder.[13]
  • 1755 – verb, to impose a quota on.[2]
  • 1857 – the minimum number of votes to elect a candidate.[2]
  • 1891 – a maximum quantity of a product allowed by official controls.[2]
  • 1921 – a maximum number of immigrants admitted.[2][4]
  • 1956 – a minimum number of minority members or women sought.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The proportional share of a whole that is due from or allotted to a person or group: Each village had to supply its quota of grain.[8][11][2]
  2. A fixed maximum or minimum number or quantity, as of goods to be produced, imported or caught, or of immigrants or students to be admitted.[8][2][11]
  3. A minimum number or proportion of members of minority groups or of women to be hired or admitted.[2][4]
  4. (politics) Under proportional representation, the minimum number of votes needed to elect a candidate.[2]

Verb

  1. To impose a quota on; to ration or divide by quotas.[11][2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  7. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  9. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com