quizá

Forms

quizá or quizás^[2][1] Old Spanish wrote quiçab, quiçabe, quizab, quiçap and quiça.^[3][4] Quizás, with the adverbial -s, is recorded from the early 15th century and is a variant of equal standing.^[5][2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish quiçab in a reduced form; this, with its later variant quiçabe, is an alteration of the phrase from Old Spanish qui (“who”) + sabe (“knows”), so “who knows”.^[3][6][1] The DRAE of 2001 derived it directly from Latin qui sapit (“knows”);^[7] Wiktionary takes this phrase as a Vulgar Latin expression.^[1] Nascentes finds the ⟨ç⟩ hard to explain.^[8]

Portuguese quiçá is a loan from Spanish, recorded in the 13th century;^[9][10] Wiktionary compares Italian chissà and Catalan quissà, and, in Monlau, French qui sait.^[1][11]

Bénaben explains the ⟨-s⟩ of quizás by analogy with other adverbs and conjunctions such as después, jamás, mientras and antes.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy), where the Cid says that the Moors fear abrán de mí salto quiçab alguna noch “they may perhaps suffer a raid from me some night”.^[13][3] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) has Abraham ask: Quiçab ha .l. justos en esta villa “perhaps there are fifty righteous men in this town”.^[13][4]

Semantic evolution

The reduced quiça, quizá appears in the 13th century, in the Libro de Alexandre and the Calila e Dimna, often in the phrase quiçá por aventura.^[3][13] Alfonso X still writes quiçab.^[14] Nebrija (c. 1495) gives quiça for Latin forte, fortasse and forsitan.^[15] The form quizás appears in the 1420s and is much less frequent than quizá in the CDH.^[5][13]

The Academy listed quizá and quizás together in 1869,^[16] and in 1899 added the phrase quizá y sin quizá, said to state as certain what was put as doubtful.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – quiçab in the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy).^[13][3]
• 1240–1250 – quizá por aventura in the Libro de Alexandre (in an early 15th-century copy).^[13]
• 1254 – Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas writes quiçab.^[14]
• c. 1422–1433 – quiças in the Alba Bible of Moses Arragel.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives quiça.^[15]
• 1532 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[18]
• 1869 – the Academy enters quizá ó quizás.^[16]
• 1899 – the Academy records quizá y sin quizá.^[17]

Meanings

Adverb

1. perhaps, maybe: expresses that something may happen or be true: Quizá nieve esta noche.^[6][1]
2. quizá y sin quizá: certainly, without a doubt.^[6][19]

Word family

• quizás

Related words

• acaso
• tal vez
• saber
• Portuguese quiçá
• Italian chissà

Usage notes

Quizá and quizás are interchangeable; the DLE defines quizás by quizá.^[2][1] The verb after it may be in the subjunctive or the indicative: quizá venga, quizá viene.^[6][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. quizás
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. quizá
4. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. quizá
5. ^ 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. quizás
6. ^ 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. quizá
7. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. quizá
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. quiçá
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2797
10. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. quiçá
11. ^ Monlau, Pedro Felipe (1856), Diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana (ensayo), Madrid: Imprenta de la Sociedad Literaria y Tipográfica, p. 390
12. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. quizá
13. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. quizá
14. ^ 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. quizá
15. ^ 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. quizá
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 651
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 836
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. quizá
19. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. quizá
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. quizá