Etymologically
Log in

quisnam

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 19 October 2026 at 00:20. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkʷɪs.nãː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkʷiz.nam][1]

Forms

quisnam (femine quaenam, neuter quidnam)[1]

Etymology

It is formed from quis (“who?”) and the particle nam.[2][1][3] De Vaan traces ⟨quis⟩ to Proto-Italic *kʷis and Proto-Indo-European *kʷis (“who, what”), cognate with Oscan pis (“who”); ⟨nam⟩ may be an old accusative of a pronoun stem *no- (“that”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author,[3] who asks “who is that man in the cloak following at a distance?”.[2]

Semantic evolution

It is the emphatic “who, pray?”, in direct and indirect questions, as Cicero's “we began to ask who this Verrucius was”.[2][5] The neuter quidnam is “what, pray?”, and as an adverb “why, pray?”, as Plautus' “but why does he come home so soon?”.[2] The masculine singular is also used as an adjective, for quīnam, as Plautus' “what river is that, that the sea would not receive?”.[2]

Church Latin glosses it “who then, which then, what then”.[6]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus in direct questions.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero in indirect questions.[2][3]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. Who? which? what? (emphatic: who, pray?); also in indirect questions.[2][1][6]
  2. (neuter quidnam, as adverb) Why, pray?[2]
  3. (masculine, as adjective) What, which (= quīnam).[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e 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 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. ^ 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