Etymologically
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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈkuːr][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkur][1]

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]

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