quamdiu

Forms

quamdiū (not comparable)^[1] It is often written separately, and the parts can be split: quam voluit diū.^[2][3] An inscription has quandius.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin quam (“how”) + diū (“long”).^[2][1][4] De Vaan explains ⟨diū⟩ as an old locative of the word for “day”, from Proto-Indo-European *di-eu- (“day; sky”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's earliest example is from Plautus, a direct question: “how long ago did that happen?”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

As an interrogative it asks “how long?”, directly or in indirect questions, as Cicero's wish to know how long Atticus would be in Rome, and Cicero also uses it in an exclamation, “how long you would speak!”.^[2] As a relative it is “as long as”, with or without a correlative tamdiū.^[2] In the jurists it is “until” with the subjunctive.^[2]

Church Latin has it for while, as long as, until, how long, inasmuch as.^[6] Medieval Latin also used it for “till” and adverbially “for a while”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus in a direct question.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero as an interrogative and a relative.^[2][4]
• before 223 AD – Ulpian in the sense “until”.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. How long?; how long ago?^[2][3][1]
2. (exclamatory) How long!^[2]
3. (relative) As long as, while.^[2][1][6]
4. (with subjunctive) Until.^[2][1][7]
5. (Medieval Latin) For a while.^[7]

Related words

• diū
• tamdiū
• quam

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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b c Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill