quemadmodum

Forms

quemadmodum (not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from quem (“which”), ad (“according to”) and modum (“manner”), “according to which manner”.^[2][1][3] It is often written separately, in three parts or in two.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it as a question: Quemadmodum?, “How?”.^[4] Köbler first records it in Cicero.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Quemadmodum asks “how?, in what way?” (Cicero: praetor tē quemadmodum possidēre iussit?), in indirect questions and in exclamations, “how!”.^[2][4][1] As a relative it is “in the way that, as”, often with sīc or ita, “just as”, and “for example”; with contrasting ideas, quemadmodum … sīc is “while … at the same time”.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “how, in what manner” and “as, just as”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: Quemadmodum?.^[4][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero: praetor tē quemadmodum possidēre iussit?.^[2][3]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it in questions.^[2][3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (interrogative) How?, in what way?^[2][4][1][5]
2. (exclamatory) How!^[2]
3. (relative) As, just as.^[2][1][5]
4. For example.^[2][1]

Related words

• quōmodo
• modus
• sīcut

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson