Etymologically
Log in

ecquando

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 11:20. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

ecquandō (not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin ec- + quandō (“when”),[2][1] with the particle that Lewis & Short compare with ecce (“behold”).[3] De Vaan traces ecce to Proto-Italic *ek reinforced with ⟨-ce⟩.[4] The TLL instead takes it as grown together from the conjunction et (“and”) and interrogative quandō.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,[6] who uses it in indignant questions in the Verrines: ecquando te rationem factorum tuorum redditurum putasti?, “did you ever think you would have to give an account of your deeds?”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short call it rare but Classical and note that it belongs to passionate, often indignant questions.[3] It is used in direct questions, “ever?”, as Caelius' ecquando tu hominem ineptiorem vidisti?, “have you ever seen a sillier man?”,[7][3] and in indirect ones, “whether ever”, as in Cicero's quaero ecquando nisi per XXXV tribus creati sint, “I ask whether they were ever elected except by the thirty-five tribes”.[2][7] Conte also cites the historian Quadrigarius.[7] Livy, Seneca and Valerius Flaccus have it too.[3] With the particle -ne added, ecquandone, it is in Propertius, Velleius and Apuleius.[3][8]

Timeline

  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, in direct and indirect questions.[2][3][6]
  • 57/46–12 BC – Propertius has ecquandone.[3][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy.[3][8][6]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. (in direct questions) At any time?, ever?[2][3][1]
  2. (in indirect questions) Whether at any time.[2][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  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. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn