quinam

Forms

quīnam, quaenam, quodnam (interrogative)^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from the interrogative quī (“which, what”) and the emphatic particle nam.^[2][1][3] De Vaan takes ⟨nam⟩ as perhaps an old feminine accusative of a stem Proto-Italic *no/e- (“that”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Aulularia: quīnam homō hīc ante aedīs nostrās ēiulāns conquerītur?, “who on earth is this man wailing outside our house?”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

It is an emphatic interrogative, “which, what (tell me)?”, and Plautus also uses the masculine as “who, tell me?”, as quīnam ā nōbīs exit?, “who's that coming out of our house?”.^[2] It also asks of kind or degree, as Apuleius' challenge to name what witnesses were present.^[2] Lewis and Short call it chiefly early Latin, citing Plautus and Accius.^[5]

Church Latin has it as “which, what”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus in questions.^[2][3]
• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius.^[5][3]
• c. 125–175 AD – Apuleius.^[2][3]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (interrogative adjective) Which, what (pray)?^[2][1][6]
2. (masculine nominative) Who (pray)?^[2]

Related words

• quī
• quisnam
• nam

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. ^ 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 Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson