Etymologically
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quanto

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quanto1 how much

Pronunciation

Forms

quanto (feminine quanta, masculine plural quanti, feminine plural quante)[1] In the singular it may be elided before a vowel: quant'è?.[2][3] Old Lombard has an unstressed form quan.[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quantus (“how great, how much”), with the adverb from its neuter quantum.[6][7][8][9] The Latin word is formed from quam (“how, as”), which belongs with quis (“who”) (see chi), and is the correlative of tantus (“so great”).[6][7][10][5] Wiktionary gives as an alternative Proto-Indo-European *kʷéh₂onts (“how much, how many”).[1] Umbrian panta has the same formation.[10]

The word is panromance: French quant (only in ⟨quant à⟩ “as for”), Occitan cant, Catalan quant, Spanish cuanto, Sardinian cantu and Romanian cât.[7][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELI's earliest record is the comparative use, “as much as”, in a Florentine bankers' account book of 1211.[6] The relative “all those who” follows in Patecchio in the 12th or 13th century, and “all that” in Giacomo da Lentini before 1250.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The interrogative adjective is in the Novellino at the end of the 13th century: “Quanti cavalieri sono quelli che fanno questa uccisione?” (How many knights are those doing this slaughter?).[6][5] The exclamative use is in Bono Giamboni before 1292, and the noun il quanto “quantity” in Dante, as in “nel quale e nel quanto” (in quality and in quantity, Paradiso 2).[6][12] In Florence in the 14th and 15th centuries it could also mean “likewise”.[4]

From it come quantità, at the end of the 13th century, quantunque “although” before 1342, and quantomeno, written as one word from 1948.[6] Many conjunctions and phrases are built on it: in quanto, per quanto, quanto a and quanto basta.[8]

Timeline

  • 1211 – A Florentine bankers' book uses quanto in a comparison.[6]
  • Before 1250 – Giacomo da Lentini uses it for “all that”.[6]
  • Before 1292 – Bono Giamboni uses it in exclamations.[6]
  • Late 13th century – The Novellino uses it in a question.[6]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses il quanto for “quantity”.[6]
  • Before 1342 – Quantunque is first recorded.[6]
  • 1948 – Camillo Sbarbaro writes quantomeno as one word.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. how much, how many, in questions: quanti biglietti ti servono?[8][2][13]
  2. In exclamations, what a lot of: quanta neve è caduta![8][2][13]
  3. As a relative, all the … that, as much as: mangia quanto pane vuoi.[8][13][3]

Pronoun

  1. How much, how many: quanto costa?, in quanti siete venuti?[8][9][14]
  2. What, all that: ha fatto quanto poteva.[9][1]

Adverb

  1. How much, to what extent, in questions and exclamations: quanto mi sei mancato![13][9]
  2. As, as much as, in comparisons, often with tanto: è alto quanto suo fratello.[13][8]

Noun

  1. il quanto: the amount, the quantity.[12][14]

Word family

  • quantità
  • quantitativo
  • quantunque
  • quantomeno
  • quantificare

quanto2 quantum

Pronunciation

Forms

quanto m (plural quanti)[1]

Etymology

The physics term is borrowed from German Quantum, a word that the German physicist Max Planck introduced in 1900 in the form New Latin quantum for the amount of energy given off by an atomic particle.[7][6][2] The GDLI calls it a learned rendering of the scientific Latin word.[15] That form is quantum, the neuter of quantus, used as a noun.[14][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT and Nocentini date it to 1927;[8][7][6] DELI's first record is the Enciclopedia italiana of 1929.[8][7][6]

Semantic evolution

The adjectives quantistico and quantico are recorded from 1930 (Nocentini dates quantistico to 1924), and quantizzare from 1959.[6][7] Carlo Emilio Gadda wrote of admiring in Proust a sense of relativity that is like the method of modern fisica dei quanti.[15]

Timeline

  • 1927 – Quanto “quantum” is first recorded.[8][7]
  • 1929 – The Enciclopedia italiana uses it.[6]
  • 1930 – Quantistico and quantico appear in the Enciclopedia italiana.[6]
  • 1959 – Quantizzare is recorded.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (physics) A quantum, the smallest amount that a physical quantity can take, which changes only by multiples of it: teoria dei quanti.[8][2][14]
  2. (physics) The elementary particle associated with a field of force, such as the photon.[2][15]

Word family

  • quantistico
  • quantico
  • quantizzare
  • quantizzazione

Usage notes

In recipes quanto basta, abbreviated q.b., means “as much as needed”.[8][1] The phrase e quant'altro closes a list, like “and so on”.[3][9]

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 Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  3. ^ a b c Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3170
  5. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 61
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  9. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
  10. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  12. ^ a b Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  13. ^ a b c d e Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  14. ^ a b c d Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
  15. ^ a b c Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 15, 66