cuanto

Forms

cuanto m (plural cuantos, feminine cuanta, feminine plural cuantas)^[1] Old Spanish texts mostly spell it quanto, quanta, quantos, with rarer quoanto and the apocopated quoant.^[2] The short form cuan is used before adjectives and adverbs.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quantus (“how great, how much”).^[5][4][3][1] Old Spanish wrote it quanto.^[5][4][3][1] The short form cuán probably comes from the neuter quantum by apocope, according to Corominas,^[4] while the Academy derives it from quam (“how”).^[3]

The same Latin word is Portuguese quanto, Catalan quant, Occitan quant, Italian quanto and Romanian cât.^[6][7][8][1] French kept it only in French quant “as for”, from a Latin phrase with the neuter.^[6][7][8][1]

The Latin adjective belongs with tantus “so great” and the relative and interrogative stem of quis.^[9] Wiktionary derives it through Proto-Italic *kʷijentos from Proto-Indo-European *kʷíh₂onts (“how much, how many”), and compares Sanskrit कियत् (kíyat).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the beginnings of the language, with the Glosas Silenses and the Cantar de mio Cid as the first texts.^[5][4] The earliest CDH hit is the Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), where nobody in Burgos dares sell the hero food, the town having been forbidden all things „cuantas son de vianda” “as many as are victuals”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish often put que after the relative (cuanto que, cuantos que), a construction frequent in the Cid, in Berceo and in 13th-century texts that still turns up later.^[5] Alfonso X's prose uses it for amount, price, time and degree, as a relative after todo (toda quanta tierra) and in the plural for “all the people who”; it even has a diminutive quantiella.^[11]

The dictionaries from 1817 on describe it as an indefinite numeral, the correlative of tanto.^[12] In 1869 the Academy added the plural unos cuantos “a few”, and in 1884 it first gave the Latin etymon.^[13][14] The comparative pattern cuanto más … más is well documented in the classical writers.^[15] The first record from the Americas is from Tierra Firme in 1515.^[16]

Timeline

• 900s – the Glosas Silenses, the first record according to Corominas.^[5][4]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy).^[10][5]
• 1254–1280 – Alfonso X's prose uses it for quantity, price and degree.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin quantus as its equivalent.^[17]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias glosses it as number and price, Latin quantus.^[18]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “del lat. quantus”.^[14]

Meanings

Relative determiner

1. All the … that, as many … as: Leyó cuantas cartas le llegaron.^[3][19]
2. Before a singular countable noun, stresses a large number: Guarda cuanto papel viejo encuentra.^[3]
3. In correlation with tanto: as much, as many: Trajo tantas sillas cuantas personas venían.^[3][1]
4. In proportional comparisons: the more … the more: Cuanto más lo pienso, menos me gusta.^[3][1]

Relative pronoun

1. Everything that, all that: Hizo cuanto pudo.^[3][19]
2. (plural) All the people who: Cuantos la escuchaban se emocionaban.^[3]
3. unos cuantos a few, some.^[3][13][1]

Adverb

1. As much as, all that: Come cuanto te apetezca.^[3][1]
2. In proportional comparisons: the more, the less: Cuanto antes salgas, antes llegarás.^[3]
3. cuanto antes as soon as possible;^[20][8] en cuanto as soon as;^[20][8] en cuanto a as for.^[20][8]

Conjunction

1. Introduces the second term after tanto or tan: both … and, as … as: Lo admiran tanto sus amigos cuanto sus rivales.^[3]

Word family

• cuantía
• cuantioso

Related words

• cuán
• cantidad
• Latin quantus
• Portuguese quanto

Usage notes

The physical noun cuanto “quantum” (plural cuantos) is a separate, recent borrowing of Latin quantum, the neuter of the same Latin adjective.^[3][1][19] The accented cuánto is the interrogative and exclamative form: ¿Cuánto cuesta?^[14][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cuanto
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. cuanto
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuanto
5. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 258
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6935
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5331
8. ^ a b c d e Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. quant
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. quantus
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cuanto
11. ^ a b 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. cuanto
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 257
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 224
14. ^ a b c 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
15. ^ Cuervo, Rufino José (1886–1893), Diccionario de construcción y régimen de la lengua castellana, vols. I–II (A–D), París: A. Roger y F. Chernoviz, p. 2, 649
16. ^ a b 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. cuanto
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 321
18. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1240
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cuanto
20. ^ a b c Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 642