quorsum
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Pronunciation
Forms
quōrsum (not comparable)[1] Also quōrsus.[2][3] Accius has quōsum, and corsum or corsus is a reading in Valerius Maximus.[2]
Etymology
It is from Latin quō (“whither”) + vorsum (“turned towards”), with the archaic form of versus2, written as one word.[2][1][4]
Earliest recorded meaning
Plautus has it first.[4] In the Poenulus it is relative, “in the direction in which”;[2] elsewhere he asks tenes quorsum haec tendant quae loquor?, “do you see where what I am saying is heading?”.[3]
Semantic evolution
The literal question “in what direction, to what place?” appears in Pacuvius.[2] From there it turns to “to what end, to what point?”, often with a verb of saying left out: Cicero asks where so long a speech is heading, and why he is arguing this.[2][3] In medieval texts it means simply “where”.[5]
Timeline
- c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, of where one's words are heading.[3][2][4]
- 220–130 BC – Pacuvius, of the direction of a journey.[2][4]
- 81–43 BC – Cicero, “to what end?”.[2][4]
- Medieval Latin – “Where”.[5]
Meanings
Adverb
- In what direction? to what place? whither?[2][3][1]
- To what point or condition? to what end? why?[2][1]
- (relative) In the direction in which.[2]
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill