quedo

Forms

quedo (feminine queda, masculine plural quedos, feminine plural quedas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quiētus (“quiet, peaceful, calm”), the participle of quiēscō (“to rest, keep still”).^[2][3][4][1] The REW and the DHLF start from a Vulgar Latin form without the ⟨i⟩, *quētus.^[5][6] Its learned doublet is quieto, which replaced it in ordinary use: Corominas first finds the learned form in Casas (1570) and frequently from the early 17th century, while the BDELC dates it 1438.^[2][3]

The same word is Portuguese quedo, Galician quedo, Catalan quet, French coi, Italian cheto and Romanian cet.^[7][5][1] Wiktionary takes the Latin verb back to Proto-Italic *kʷjētos.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140) uses the adjective in the sense “still, motionless” (verse 702), and once in the sense “restrained, humble” (verse 2213).^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

Throughout the Middle Ages the adjective meant “still, motionless” and also “calm”: in the Vida de San Ildefonso the father, in his grief, cannot keep still (non podía con pesar estar quedo).^[2] The sense “silent” is just as old: in Berceo's Milagros the Virgin comes queda e sin roído, quietly and without noise.^[2] Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of still water (agua que este queda) as against running water.^[9]

Both senses were still current in the Golden Age, but later the adjective became archaic, and quieto took its place.^[2] The adverb stayed alive much longer: Juan Ruiz has the diminutive quediello “quietly”, the Rimado de Palacio quedo a quedo “little by little”, and Corominas follows the adverb through Góngora (1613) to Moratín in the 19th century.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 explained quedo as “softly and carefully”.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) gave the adjective as “quiet”, the adverb as “in a very low voice” and “carefully”, and the phrases quedo que quedo (said of someone stubbornly refusing to act) and a pie quedo “without moving, at ease”.^[11] The Academy's 1884 edition added the interjection ¡quedo! and a quedo “slowly”.^[12] Moliner labels the adjective of a voice or steps and the adverb as literary.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses quedo “still”.^[2][8]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Milagros has queda “silent”.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of still water.^[9]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz uses the adverb quediello.^[2][14]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses quedo as Latin quietus.^[15]
• 1570 – the learned doublet quieto in Casas, according to Corominas.^[2]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the word as “softly and carefully”.^[10]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the adverb and the phrase a pie quedo.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. still, quiet; quieto.^[4][1]
2. (literary) Of the voice or steps: soft, hushed: Se oían sus pasos quedos en la escalera.^[13]

Adverb

1. In a low voice; quietly: Hablaban quedo en el pasillo.^[4][1]
2. Carefully, gently.^[4][10]

Word family

• quedito
• quedamente

Related words

• quieto
• quietud
• Latin quiētus
• Portuguese quedo

Usage notes

¡Quedo! is an old interjection used to hold someone back, “easy!”.^[12][13] The DLE lists under the same headword the feminine noun queda “curfew”, which the BDELC dates from 1155 and places with quedar.^[4][3]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 708
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. quedo
4. ^ a b c d e 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. quedo
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. quietus
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. coi
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5357
8. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 406
9. ^ 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. quedo
10. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1240
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 462
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 886
13. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. quedo
14. ^ 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. quedo
15. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 403