Etymologically
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quattuor

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈkʷat.tu.ɔr][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkʷat.tu.or][1]

Forms

quattuor (indeclinable)[1] Quātuor and quattor are later spellings.[2] Plautus scans it in two syllables.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *kʷetwōr, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *kʷétuōr (“four”).[4] The /a/ for expected /e/ is unexplained in Wiktionary's account, and de Vaan takes it from forms with zero grade, Proto-Indo-European *kʷt-, as in compounds with quadru-.[4][1] Cognate with Oscan pettiur (“four”) and Umbrian peturpursus (“quadrupeds”), and further with Old Irish cethair (“four”), Sanskrit चत्वारः (catvā́raḥ, “four”) and Ancient Greek τέσσαρες (téssares, “four”).[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it.[4] Köbler dates Plautus c. 250–184 BC.[5]

Semantic evolution

It was the number four, indeclinable, and formed the base of words such as quater “four times”, quadrāns “a quarter” and quattuordecim “fourteen”.[4][3]

In British medieval Latin quattuor tempora were the Ember Days, the four seasons of fasting, and quattuor viae was a crossroads.[6] It survives as Italian quattro, French quatre and Romanian patru.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it.[4][5]
  • 204–169 BC – Ennius has ter quattuor corpora “twelve bodies”.[2][5]
  • c. 1300 – English quarter is recorded, through Old French from a Latin derivative of the same root.[7]

Meanings

Numeral

  1. Four.[3][2]
  2. (Medieval Latin) Quattuor tempora, the Ember Days.[6]

Word family

  • quadricolor
  • quadrifluuium
  • quadrifluus
  • quadrigeminus
  • quadriiugis
  • quadringentī
  • quadripertītus
  • quadruplicō
  • quadrurbs
  • quattuordecim
  • quattuorprimi
  • quattuorvir

Usage notes

Isidore wrote that four took its name from the figure of the square (quadrātum).[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  6. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
  7. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  8. ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).