Etymologically
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quisquam

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈkʷɪs.kʷãː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈkʷis.kʷam][1]

Forms

quisquam (neuter quidquam or quicquam); interrogative/indefinite pronoun with an indeclinable portion[1] The neuter is spelled quicquam or quidquam, and the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus has the old spelling QVIQVAM.[2][3] Separate feminine forms are hardly attested in classical Latin;[3] quamquam appears once in Seneca, and quāquam survives in haudquāquam.[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin quis + -quam, from the indefinite pronoun and ⟨quam⟩, the accusative feminine singular of ⟨quis⟩.[3][1] The pronoun quis continues Proto-Indo-European *kʷis (“who, what; someone, something”).[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on:[5] neque domī neque in urbe inveniō quemquam quī illum vīderit, “at home or in the city I find no one who has seen him”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Quisquam means “anyone (at all)”, neuter quicquam “anything”, chiefly in negative sentences, where it is more emphatic than quis; it also strengthens nēmō and nihil (nēmō quisquam).[3] It is used in rhetorical questions, in conditional clauses (tū, sī quisquam “you more than anyone”), after comparatives and in generalizing clauses.[3]

The neuter also means “anything of value”, and as an adverb “at all”.[3] As an adjective it is a more emphatic ūllus, “any (single)”.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – First found in Plautus: nēmō quisquam.[3][5]
  • 190–159 BC – Terence uses it in an indignant question: mihin quisquam?[3][5]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. (in negative sentences) anyone at all;[3][2] (neuter) anything at all.[3]
  2. Any one (of a number).[3]
  3. (strengthening nēmō, nihil) nēmō quisquam, no one at all.[3]
  4. (in questions and conditions) Anyone;[3] sī quisquam, more than anyone.[3]
  5. (neuter) Anything of value.[3]
  6. (neuter accusative as adverb) In any respect, at all.[3]

Determiner

  1. Any, any at all (a more emphatic ūllus).[3][1]

Word family

  • haudquāquam
  • nēquāquam
  • nēquīquam

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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 c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de