Etymologically
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quaestus

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Forms

quaestus m (genitive quaestūs); fourth declension[1] Plautus, Caecilius, Terence and other early writers have the genitive quaestī, Varro has quaestuis.[2][3]

Etymology

It is contracted from ⟨quaesītus⟩, from Latin quaerō (“to seek, acquire”) + -tus, an action noun.[2][1][4] The origin of quaerō is uncertain; de Vaan favours Nussbaum's derivation from Proto-Indo-European *kʷeh₂-i- (“to acquire”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan and Köbler date it from Plautus,[4][5] who has occēpit quaestum hunc fīlī grātiā inhonestum, “for his son's sake he took up this dishonourable trade”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Quaestus is the pursuit of income, a gainful occupation or trade, also a disreputable one, and the making of profit (Terence, Cicero: he turned his voice to profit).[2][1] It is also what is gained, profit, income, advantage: quaestum facere, “to make money”.[2][3][1]

Döderlein compares it with lucrum, earned gain, and ēmolumentum.[6] Church Latin glosses it “gain, advantage, profit, income”.[7] In medieval Latin it also meant the pursuit of profit, availing oneself of something, and revenue.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: quaestum hunc … inhonestum.[2][5]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of profit.[2][5]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: vōcem in quaestum contulit.[2][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Gainful occupation, trade, business.[2][1]
  2. The making of profit.[2]
  3. Gain, profit, income, advantage.[2][3][1][7]
  4. (Medieval Latin) Revenue.[8]

Word family

  • quaesticulus
  • quaestuōsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill