quemadmodum
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Pronunciation
- IPA (Classical): [ˈkʷẽː ˈad.mɔ.dũː][1]
- IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈkʷɛm ˈad.mo.dum], [ˈkʷɛm ˈad ˈmɔː.dum][1]
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
- (interrogative) How?, in what way?[2][4][1][5]
- (exclamatory) How![2]
- (relative) As, just as.[2][1][5]
- For example.[2][1]
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson