cur

Forms

cūr (not comparable)^[1] The old spelling quōr occurs twelve times in Plautus and in Varro, Lucretius and Cicero; manuscripts also have qūr and quūr, and inscriptions qur.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kʷōr, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kʷōr (“where?”), from ⟨*kʷor⟩, built on the interrogative stem *kʷo-.^[2][1] Old Latin ⟨quōr⟩ became ⟨cūr⟩ as ⟨*bʰōr⟩ became fūr “thief”; the raising to ⟨-ūr⟩ happened only in stressed syllables, since the final ⟨-ōr⟩ of ⟨auctōr⟩ and ⟨uxōr⟩ did not take part in it.^[2]

Cognate with Sanskrit कर्हि (kárhi, “when?”), Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐍂 (ƕar, “where”), Old Norse hvar (“where”) and Old English hwǣr (“where”); from the stem ⟨*kʷu-⟩ come Albanian kur (“when”) and Lithuanian kur̃ (“where”).^[2][3] The grammarian Velius Longus explained it as a contraction of quārē, which Lewis and Short follow.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Naevius on:^[2][5] cūr rē inquaesītā colligor? “why am I seized when the matter has not been looked into?”^[3]

Semantic evolution

Cūr asks “why? for what reason or purpose?”, in direct and indirect questions.^[3][6] As a relative it means “on account of which”, especially in causa cūr and quid est cūr …? “what reason is there that …?”.^[3] Quintilian seems to use it for “because”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – First found in Naevius.^[2][5]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: cūr mē retentās? “why do you hold me back?”^[3][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it in an indirect question.^[3][5]
• c. 35–95 AD – Quintilian uses it apparently for “because”.^[3][5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. why? for what reason or purpose?^[3][4]
2. (in indirect questions) Why.^[3]
3. (relative) On account of which;^[3] quid est cūr …?, what reason is there that …?^[3]
4. Because.^[3]

Related words

• quis
• quārē
• ubi

Usage notes

Döderlein says that cūr serves both for real questions and for rhetorical ones, while quārē is used only for questions that expect an answer.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper