quamlibet

Forms

quamlibet (adverb; not comparable)^[1] The older spelling is quamlubet.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin quam (“how”) + libet (“it pleases”).^[1][3] De Vaan traces libet, older ⟨lubet⟩, to Proto-Italic *luf-ē- (“to desire”) and Proto-Indo-European *lubʰ-eh₁- (“to please”), comparing Old High German liob (“dear, sweet”) and Oscan loufir (“or”), which shows a similar shift to the sense any.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lewis & Short first quote Lucretius, with ⟨quamlubet⟩: let a thing be as unique as you like.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Lewis & Short give a first sense as one pleases, at will.^[2] More often it is in whatever degree, however, modifying an adjective or adverb: Caelius, writing to Cicero, asks that Pompey be given some gift, however slight.^[1] With a verb it is however much: Quintilian writes of whatever little a child's earlier years have given.^[1] Köbler dates it from Ovid and finds it in medieval charters.^[3]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius has ⟨quamlubet⟩.^[2][3]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it.^[3]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian with a verb.^[1][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. As one pleases, at will.^[2]
2. In whatever degree, however; however much.^[1][2][5]

Related words

• libet
• quam

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org