que

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quid (“what?”) in most of its uses, but the Spanish particle gathers several Latin relative words and particles that merged into one form.^[2][3][4][1] As a conjunction it continues the neuter interrogative quid, which in Vulgar Latin took over the functions of the classical relative quod (“that, because”) and absorbed some popular uses of quia (“because”).^[2][3] As a relative pronoun it is the masculine accusative quem, and as the conjunction of comparison it comes from a confusion of these with quam (“than”).^[2][3][5]

The relative is the clearest part: quem, pronounced as an unstressed word, lost its final /m/ and did not diphthongise, and Vulgar Latin dropped the feminine relative forms early, replacing them with the masculine ones.^[2] Bénaben notes that the same accusative, stressed, gave quien, while the nominative survived as qui and the genitive cuius gave cuyo.^[6]

The conjunction is harder.^[2] Classical Latin used ut or quod, and quod spread in Late Latin to nearly the range of Romance que, but on phonetic grounds it cannot be the source of the Spanish word, and it survives only in Romanian ca.^[2][7] In popular Latin quia and quid invade the ground of quod as a conjunction introducing a clause, with examples from Petronius and the Peregrinatio Aetheriae on, and Hispanic Late Latin kept this use for a long time.^[2] The earliest Castilian still had ca from quia in this function: the Glosas Silenses render a Latin quod with ka.^[2] Forms such as ked and ket before a vowel in Castilian and Aragonese documents of the 10th and 11th centuries, like Italian ched and Occitan quez, show that quid had the main part in the conjunction, so Corominas considers the question settled; he finds the derivation from quem proposed by Jeanjaquet far less likely, and the Sardinian conjunction ki argues against it.^[2]

The comparative use goes back to quam, which first became ca and then merged with the other que.^[2] Old Portuguese kept this ca “than” for centuries, and popular Portuguese still has it; in Leonese texts it is found as late as the 14th century.^[2]

The same word is Italian che, French que (with stressed quoi), Catalan que, Portuguese que and Romanian ce.^[7][8] Latin quid goes back to Proto-Italic *kʷid and Proto-Indo-European *kʷid, the neuter of the interrogative *kʷís.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the earliest Spanish texts, the Glosas Emilianenses and Silenses, about 950.^[2][3] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) the relative appears in the Cid's prayer, „¡Grado a ti, Señor, Padre que estás en alto!” “Thanks be to you, Lord, Father who are on high!”.^[10] The Auto de los Reyes Magos (c. 1180) has the conjunction after a phrase of time: „poco timpo á que es nacida” “it is a short time since it was born”, said of the star.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish que gradually replaced ca: the causal que already appears beside it in the Cid and in Berceo.^[2] The old nominative qui was still used for persons, as in the Liber regum (c. 1194–1211), „otro fillo, qui ouo nomne Seth” “another son, who was named Seth”.^[10][6] The Cid already shows the conjunction in causal, final, consecutive, concessive, conditional and adversative clauses, and the relative standing for “in which” after a noun of time.^[11]

Nebrija's dictionary of about 1495 gives Latin ut and quod for the conjunction, quam for the comparative and quia or quoniam for the causal use.^[12] Autoridades defined it as a relative particle equivalent to el cual, and also listed its use as a noun meaning “something” in questions and as an exclamation, uses now written qué.^[13] Salvá in 1846 recorded it in the sense “or” (tarde que temprano) and as an intensifier between two equal words (peor que peor).^[14] Baralt in 1855 condemned as a Gallicism the que that opens wishes and commands.^[15]

In the Americas, Argentine speech used a que to introduce a bet or a threat.^[16] Popular Mexican Spanish pronounces it qui.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 950 – the Glosas Emilianenses and Silenses, the first Spanish texts, contain the word.^[2][3]
• 10th–11th centuries – Castilian and Aragonese documents write ked and ket before a vowel.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses que as relative and conjunction.^[10]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber regum still has the nominative qui.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives ut, quod, quam and quia as its Latin equivalents.^[12]
• 1513 – the first record from the Americas, in Arequipa.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls it an interrogative or relative particle and derives it from Latin quis or qui.^[19]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin qui.^[20]
• 2001 – the 22nd edition gives Latin quid as its etymon, as the current dictionary does.^[21][4]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. who, which, that: introduces a relative clause referring to a stated antecedent: La chica que vino ayer es mi prima.^[4][1]
2. With the definite article (el que, la que, lo que), introduces a relative clause without a stated antecedent: “the one who”, “what”: Lo que dijiste es cierto.^[4]

Conjunction

1. That: introduces a noun clause: Espero que vengas pronto.^[4][1]
2. than: introduces the second term of a comparison of inequality: Es más alto que su padre.^[4][1]
3. Used instead of y with an adversative sense: Lo pagó él, que no yo.^[4]
4. (causal) because, for: Abrígate, que hace frío.^[4][1]
5. whether … or, in repeated pairs: Que llueva, que no llueva, saldremos.^[4]
6. Introduces the result in consecutive constructions with tan or tal: Corría tan deprisa que nadie lo alcanzaba.^[4]
7. With the subjunctive, introduces a wish: ¡Que te vaya bien!^[1]

Word family

• aunque
• porque
• quehacer
• queísmo

Related words

• qué
• quien
• cuyo
• Latin quid

Usage notes

The interrogative and exclamative qué is written with an accent and has its own page.^[21][1] In medieval and later manuscripts the word was often abbreviated q̃.^[1] The relative el que after a preposition (la casa en la que vivo) is a pronominal phrase of its own in the Academy's dictionary.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 703
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. que
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. que
5. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. que
6. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. que
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ 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, 907
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. quis
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. que
11. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 405
12. ^ a b 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. que
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 457
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 901
15. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 572
16. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 410
17. ^ Henríquez Ureña, Pedro (2015), Obras completas, vol. 12: 1936–1940 III, ed. Miguel D. Mena, Santo Domingo: Ministerio de Cultura, p. 30
18. ^ 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. que
19. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1240
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 885
21. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. que