Etymologically
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quale

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Pronunciation

Forms

quale m or f by sense (plural quali)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quālis (“of what kind”), from the accusative ⟨quālem⟩.[2][3][4][1] The word is pan-Romance: French quel, Occitan cal, Spanish cual, Portuguese qual, Sardinian cale and Romanian care.[3][5]

In Latin it was the correlative of tālis (“such”), and it belongs with the interrogative quis (“who”).[3][6] Nocentini compares Ancient Greek πηλίκος (pēlíkos, “how old, how large”) and Lithuanian ⟨kõl⟩ “how long”.[3] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *kʷālis, perhaps formed with an ⟨-l-⟩ suffix on the interrogative and relative stem Proto-Indo-European *kʷo-.[1][6]

Learned derivatives came through Latin quālitās, which Cicero coined to render Ancient Greek ποιότης (poiótēs), giving Italian qualità.[2] Of the compounds, qualora, qualsiasi and qualsivoglia add the words for “now, when”, “may it be” and “one may wish”, while qualunque follows the model of chiunque.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest record is the Memoria d'un cambio di terra of the late 12th century, where quale is a relative pronoun, “who, which”.[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The interrogative adjective is in Giacomo da Lentini before 1250, the relative “such as” in Bono Giamboni before 1292, the exclamative in Jacopone da Todi before 1306, and the interrogative pronoun in the Novellino (late 13th century).[2] Dante also used il quale as a noun, “the quality”, beside il chi “the who”;[2][7] his simile “Quali colombe dal disio chiamate” (as doves called by desire) shows the literary use of quale for “as, like”.[8]

In 14th- and 15th-century Florence the word could stand for come “how”, as in Giovanni Fiorentino and Leon Battista Alberti, and Old Pistoiese used it for chi “who”.[5] The old plural forms quai and qua’ have fallen out of use.[8][9] The adverbial use “in the capacity of” (quale testimone “as a witness”) is recorded from 1893.[2]

Timeline

  • Late 12th century – The Memoria d'un cambio di terra uses quale as a relative pronoun.[2]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses it as an interrogative.[2]
  • Before 1306 – Jacopone da Todi uses it in exclamations.[2]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses il quale as a noun, “quality”.[2]
  • 14th–15th century – Florentine writers use it for “how”.[5]
  • 1893 – The use “in the capacity of” is recorded.[2]

Meanings

Determiner

  1. (interrogative) which, what, asking about the kind, identity or nature of something, in direct and indirect questions: Quale autobus devo prendere?[4][10][8][1]
  2. (exclamative) What (a): Quale fortuna incontrarti![4][8][1]
  3. (relative) Such as, like, often paired with tale; also introducing examples: un grande porto, quale Genova.[4][10][1]

Pronoun

  1. (interrogative) Which one: Ci sono due torte: quale vuoi?[4][8][1]
  2. (relative, with the article) Who, which, that, a more formal alternative to che and cui: la collega alla quale ho scritto.[4][10][2]

Adverb

  1. As, in the capacity of: Fu chiamato quale esperto.[2][4][1]

Word family

Usage notes

Before a vowel, and especially before forms of essere, quale is truncated, not elided, so it is written without an apostrophe: qual è.[10][8] In speech the interrogative and exclamative are often replaced by che.[4][10] Fixed phrases include tale e quale “exactly the same” and non so quale “some … or other”.[4][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  3. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  5. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3169
  6. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier, p. 356
  7. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 3, 1365
  8. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET, p. 3, 1363
  10. ^ a b c d e f Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier