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quonam

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Forms

quōnam (not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin quō (“whither”) + nam (“for, indeed”).[2][1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has it first:[3] in the Trinummus one character asks another where he is going, and the answer is quonam, nisi domum?, “where else but home?”.[4]

Semantic evolution

It asks “where ever?” with some insistence.[2][4] Cicero asks in a letter where he would be going if he followed, and Caesar asks to what end all this tends but his ruin.[4] From place it passes to the point or result something leads to: Cicero asks where young men who see these things will turn their minds.[2] With usque it asks how much longer or how far, as in Statius.[2][4]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, “where else but home?”.[4][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero, of where young men will turn their minds.[2][3]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar, “to what end?”.[4][3]
  • c. 45–96 AD – Statius, quonam usque, “how much longer?”.[2][4][3]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. To what place ever? where on earth? whither, pray?[2][4][1]
  2. To what action, condition or result?[2]
  3. quōnam usque: how much longer? how far?[2][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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 f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press