alioqui

Forms

aliōquī (not comparable)^[1] It is also spelled aliōquīn.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from alius (“other”) and quī (“how, in what way”), an old ablative, as if “in some other way”; the TLL takes it from an ablative of ⟨aliud quid⟩ “something else”.^[2][1][3] The form ⟨aliōquīn⟩ arose as atquīn beside atquī, and cēterōquī is formed alike.^[3] De Vaan traces ⟨quī⟩ to the instrumental Proto-Indo-European *kʷih₁ of the pronoun stem “who, what”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Lucretius as its first author: a body aliōquī splendidus, “sound in other respects”.^[5][2] In prose the TLL finds it from Livy on.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It means “in other respects” and “as a rule, at other times” (Curtius on the multitude, otherwise unruly, but obedient to seers when caught by superstition).^[2] With sentences it is “in any event, besides” (Celsus).^[2] It marks what would follow if things were otherwise, “otherwise, else”, also after a command: Petronius' Trimalchio warns his darling that otherwise she will feel his temper.^[2] In Pliny the Elder it is “as a matter of fact, all the same”.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “otherwise, in other respects”.^[6]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius in the sense “in other respects”.^[2][5]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, first in prose.^[3][5]
• 14–37 AD – Celsus in the sense “besides”.^[2][5]
• before 66 AD – Petronius in the sense “otherwise”, after a command.^[2][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In other respects, otherwise; as a rule.^[2][1][6]
2. In any event, besides, moreover.^[2][1]
3. Otherwise, else (if things were different).^[2][1]
4. All the same, as a matter of fact.^[2]

Related words

• alius
• aliter
• cēterōquī

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson