quomodo

Forms

quōmodō̆ (not comparable)^[1] The final syllable is long in Catullus and short in Horace and Martial.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is the ablative of quī (“who, which”) with modus (“manner, measure”), “in what manner”.^[2][1][4] It is often written separately, and Plautus and later poets split it (⟨quō tū mē modō⟩).^[2][5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus uses it as a question: quōmodo … Menaechmō nōmen est factum tibi?, “how did you come to be called Menaechmus?”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Quōmodo asks “how?, in what way?”, also in rhetorical questions “how is it possible that?”, with verbs of saying “with what words?”, and alone, “how do you mean?”.^[2][1] It asks about a condition, “how are things?” (Horace: Maecēnās quōmodo tēcum?), and in exclamations means “how!, to what a degree!”.^[2][5] As a relative it is “in the way that, as”, often with sīc or ita, “just as”, and with the subjunctive “by which means”.^[2][1]

Church Latin uses it for “how” and “just as”;^[6] medieval Latin also uses it for “that” after verbs of saying and for “in order that”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: quōmodo … nōmen est factum tibi?.^[2][4]
• 234–149 BC – Cato uses it as a relative, “as”.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace: Maecēnās quōmodo tēcum?.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (interrogative) How?, in what way?^[2][5][1][6]
2. In what condition?^[2][1]
3. (exclamatory) How!, to what a degree!^[2]
4. (relative) In the way that, as; just as.^[2][1][6]
5. (with subjunctive) By which means, so that.^[2][1]
6. (Medieval Latin) That; in order that.^[7]

Related words

• quemadmodum
• modus
• quī

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 Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill