cual

Forms

cual (relative, plural cuales)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish qual, inherited from Latin quālis (“of what kind; such as”).^[2][3][4][1] In Latin the word asked or stated the quality or nature of something and answered to tālis (“such”); in Romance it became a plain interrogative and relative pronoun with no sense of quality, taking the place of Latin quis and quī.^[2][5] Beside this use the old Latin sense of comparison survives with less vigour, and Corominas finds that Spanish and Italian keep it best of the Romance languages.^[2] Because it is found in every period, from the Cid on, and in very popular texts such as proverbs, he rejects the idea that the word owes its use to learned influence.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese qual, Italian quale, French quel and Romanian care.^[5][6][1] The Latin adjective is formed from the stem of the relative pronoun with the suffix -ālis.^[7] Wiktionary traces it to *kʷālis, perhaps from *kʷeh₂-li-s, built on the interrogative and relative stem *kʷo-, and compares Ancient Greek πηλίκος (pēlíkos, “how great”).^[1]

The Old Aragonese conjunction cual (“since, inasmuch as”) has a separate source: Corominas derives it from quārē (“why”), altered under the influence of aquel, and points to its variant quar in the Fuero de Jaca.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to the mid-10th century, in the Glosas Emilianenses.^[2][3] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) uses it for “which of two”: „Ensayandos amos qual dara meiores colpes” “they both tried which would deal the better blows”.^[8][9] The relative with the article appears in the Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211): „de la qual Sancta Maria fo nado Ihesus” “of whom Saint Mary Jesus was born”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used qual in every gender, with a plural quales, as an interrogative and as a relative; with the article it formed the compound relative el qual, la qual, lo qual, which Alfonso X's prose already uses freely.^[8][10] Nebrija set cual with the article against cual without it, glossing the first with Latin qui, quae, quod and the second with qualis.^[11][12] Compounds were formed early: cualque “some”, now obsolete, and cualquier and cualquiera “any”.^[2][3]

Covarrubias noted that qual y qual meant “few, rare ones”.^[13] The Academy in 1817 recorded the distributive use (cuáles de latín, cuáles de romance “some in Latin, some in Spanish”), the comparison with tal (cual es Pedro, tal es Juan), the adverb meaning “as, like” and the phrase cada cual “each one”.^[14] Spanish grammarians of the 19th century argued over whether it was an adjective or a pronoun;^[15] Domínguez rejected the Academy's label of adjective.^[15] Today the relative el cual belongs to careful and written language: Corominas notes that popular speech has given up all relative uses of cual.^[2][16]

Timeline

• mid-10th century – the Glosas Emilianenses, the first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for “which (of two)”.^[8]
• 1155 – the compound cualque “some” in the Fuero de Avilés.^[2]
• c. 1194–1211 – the relative de la qual in the Liber Regum.^[9]
• 1220–1250 – cualquier and cualquiera in Berceo.^[2][3]
• 1494 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo: la cual.^[17]
• 1513 – Nebrija distinguishes cual with and without the article.^[11]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records qual y qual “a few”.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy lists cada cual and cual más, cual menos.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin qualis.^[18]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (relative, with the article: el cual, la cual, lo cual, los cuales, las cuales) which, who: introduces a relative clause with an expressed antecedent: La ciudad en la cual vivimos.^[4][16]
2. (correlative, often with tal) such as, like: Lo dejó tal cual estaba.^[4][16][1]
3. (in cada cual) each one, everyone: Cada cual tiene sus razones.^[14][16]

Adverb

1. (literary) like, as: in the way that, as if: Corría cual liebre perseguida.^[4][1]

Word family

• cualquiera
• cualquier

Related words

• cuál
• cualidad
• calidad
• calaña
• Latin quālis
• Portuguese qual

Usage notes

The interrogative and exclamative cuál (¿cuál prefieres? “which do you prefer?”), and its distributive use (cuál más, cuál menos), are written with an accent; the relative and comparative cual is unstressed and takes none.^[16][19] A popular feminine cuala is used in Asturias and Aragon and was already in 16th-century Aragonese; a neuter cualo is also widespread.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 257
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cual
4. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cual
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6927
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2777
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 821
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cual
10. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. cual
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 321
12. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. cual
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1240
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 257
15. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 501
16. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cual
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. coal
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 311
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. cual