quoad

Forms

quoad (not comparable)^[1] Lucretius and Horace scan it as one syllable.^[2][3] Varro and inscriptions have quaad, and an inscription has quōd.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is a compound of quō (“where, to which”) and ad (“to, up to”),^[2][4] that is ⟨ad quod⟩, “up to which”.^[1] ⟨Quō⟩ is the ablative of the relative quī (“who, which”), which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *kʷoi and Proto-Indo-European *kʷo-.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler gives Plautus as its first author.^[4] In the Asinaria a slave greets his master “as loudly as my strength allows” (quoad vīrēs valent).^[2]

Semantic evolution

As an interrogative it is “how far? to what extent?” (Lucretius) and “by what time?”, as Terence's “when do you expect your old man?”.^[2] As a relative it is “as far as”, of distance (Livy's pursuit as far as the infantry could follow) and of degree, as in Plautus.^[2][3] In time it is “as long as”, as an epitaph's “while I lived I bore my fortune”, and above all “until”, as Cicero's “until the senate was dismissed”, with the subjunctive “until such time as”.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “how far, how long; as far as, as long as”.^[6] In medieval Latin it was also a preposition with the accusative, “with regard to”.^[6][1]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of “as far as”.^[2][4]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of “by what time?”.^[2][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of “how far?”.^[2][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of “until”.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (interrogative) How far? to what extent? by what time?^[2][1][6]
2. As far as; to the degree that, insofar as.^[2][1]
3. As long as, while.^[2][1][6]
4. Until, till.^[2][1]

Preposition

1. (Medieval Latin, with accusative) With regard to.^[6][1]

Word family

• quoadusque

Related words

• quō
• ad
• dōnec
• dum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson