Etymologically
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-que

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [kʷɛ][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [kʷe][1]

Forms

-que [1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *-kʷe (“and”), from Proto-Indo-European *-kʷe (“and, -ever”).[2][1] Cognates include Venetic -kve, Faliscan -𐌂𐌖𐌄 (-cue, “and”) and Oscan -p (“and”) among the Italic languages,[2][1] Hittite -kku (“now, even, and”), Sanskrit च (ca, “and”), Avestan -ca (“and, also”), Ancient Greek τε (te, “and”) and Mycenaean Greek -qe (“and”), and Proto-Germanic *-hw.[2][1] After pronouns and adverbs it can also have a generalising meaning, “-ever”,[2] which Wiktionary suggests may come from an earlier meaning like “as”.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from the earliest Latin, the Old Latin inscription of the Madonnetta, onwards.[2] The Law of the Twelve Tables joins a complementary pair with it: inprobus intestabilisque esto, “let him be disgraced and unfit to be a witness”.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Plautus it already joins words, phrases and clauses, and adds the last member of a series;[3] Ennius repeats it for “both … and”, divumque hominumque, “of gods and of men”, a use that stayed mainly poetic.[3] It also began sentences that bring in a new point.[3] With relative pronouns and adverbs it gave indefinite words such as quisque, uterque and quandōque, and it is part of conjunctions such as atque and itaque;[3][2] some such words, as dēnique, developed meanings of their own.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it to join words and clauses.[3][4]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius uses -que … -que for “both … and”.[3][4]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses neque … -que for “neither … nor”.[3][4]

Meanings

Conjunction

  1. (enclitic) and, joining words or phrases.[3][1]
  2. (joining opposites or complementary pairs) and.[3]
  3. (joining synonyms, especially in formulas) and.[3]
  4. (joining clauses or sentences) and; at the start of a sentence, introducing a fresh event or point.[3][1]
  5. neque … -que: neither … nor.[3]
  6. (in a series) and, added to the last member or repeated.[3]
  7. -que … -que: both … and (mostly poetic).[3][1]
  8. (rare) Used in an answer.[1]

Particle

  1. (added to relative and interrogative pronouns and adverbs) -ever, every, each: quisque, uterque, quandōque.[3][1][2]
  2. Used in forming adverbs and conjunctions: atque, itaque.[3]

Word family

Usage notes

It is usually attached to the word it joins or to the emphatic word of a phrase; in Ciceronian Latin it seldom follows an unstressed monosyllabic preposition, and poets often put it later in the phrase.[3] It is never attached to non and rarely to words ending in ⟨c⟩, and it is sometimes lengthened in the stressed part of the foot, especially before a double consonant.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de