quousque

Forms

quousque (not comparable)^[1] It is often written separately, sometimes with words between, and once in reverse order in Ulpian.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a compound of quō (“whither”) and usque (“all the way, until”).^[2][1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus asks how long they will go on loving in secret, and has a man asked how long, and answer until death.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

As a question it is up to what point in time, how long, till when, as in the opening of Cicero's first speech against Catiline, how long will you abuse our patience?^[3][2] It is also how far in space, as Livy's question how far the Romans must advance, and to what degree, as in Quintilian.^[2][3] As a relative it is as far as, as long as, and as much as: the surveyor Balbus, the jurist Paulus and Statius use it so.^[2] In Medieval Latin it is as far as and until.^[5] Church Latin glosses it how long, how far, until when, to what extent.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, how long?^[2][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero, how long will you abuse our patience?^[3][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, how far?^[2]
• 98–117 AD – Balbus, as far as.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (interrogative) How long? till when?^[2][3][1][6]
2. (interrogative) How far? to what degree?^[2][3][1]
3. (relative) As far as; as long as, until; as much as.^[2][5]

Related words

• usque
• quoad

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson