quién

Forms

quién (interrogative, plural quiénes)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quem (“whom”), the accusative of the interrogative pronoun, used as a stressed word.^[2][3][4] Wiktionary takes it from the accusative of the relative quī.^[1] The unstressed relative que comes from the same accusative.^[2] There was also Old Spanish qui, from the Latin nominative, in general use until the 13th century.^[2]

The accusative is continued in Portuguese quem, Galician quen and Romanian cine, and the nominative in Italian chi, French qui and Catalan qui.^[5][6][7] Wiktionary traces the Latin pronoun to Proto-Indo-European *kʷís.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas records it from the Glosas Emilianenses and the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][3] In the Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) the relative still has the older nominative form: Non duerme sin sospecha qui aver trae monedado “whoever carries coined wealth does not sleep without fear”.^[8] Alfonso X's General Estoria (1280) has the interrogative: e quin so yo pora contradezir al mio sennor “and who am I to contradict my lord?”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The nominative Old Spanish qui still appears in the Conde Lucanor but no longer in Juan Ruiz.^[2] In the Middle Ages quien served for singular and plural; the plural quienes appears in the first half of the 16th century and met resistance in the 17th, when a critic of 1622 called it inelegant; the Quijote has quiénes only a couple of times, as an interrogative.^[2][3]

The Autoridades notes that quien is used mainly in questions, and also distributively, “one … another”: Quién sube la escalera, y quién abaxa (Ercilla).^[10] The military challenge ¿quién vive? “who goes there?” was probably imitated from French qui vive, recorded in 1419.^[2] In Central America and Mexico the word can mean “someone” or “nobody”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 950 – first record, in the Glosas Emilianenses.^[3][2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses qui and quien.^[2][8]
• 1280 – the interrogative quin in Alfonso X's General Estoria.^[9]
• 1335 – the compound quienquier;^[2] quienquiera follows in 1495.^[3]
• Early 16th century – the plural quienes appears.^[3][2]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin quis and qui.^[11]
• 1737 – the Autoridades describes its use in questions and in distributive sentences.^[10]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (interrogative) who, whom; which person: ¿Quién llamó por teléfono?;^[1] No sé con quién vino.^[4][1]
2. (exclamative) Which person, in exclamations of surprise: ¡Quién lo iba a pensar!^[4]
3. (with the imperfect or pluperfect subjunctive) Expressing a strong wish, “if only I…”: ¡Quién tuviera tu edad!^[4][1]
4. (distributive, quién… quién…) One … another: Quién reía, quién lloraba.^[4][10]
5. (Central America, Mexico) Someone; nobody.^[4]

Word family

• quién vive

Related words

• quien
• quienquiera
• qué
• que
• cuyo
• Latin quis
• Portuguese quem

Usage notes

The written accent marks the interrogative and exclamative quién; the relative pronoun is the unaccented quien.^[12][13] The plural is quiénes.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 703
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. qué
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. quién
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. qui
8. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
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. quien
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 469
11. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 403
12. ^ 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. quien
13. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos