Etymologically
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tamquam

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [ˈtaŋ.kʷãː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈtam.kʷam][1]

Forms

tamquam (not comparable)[1] It is also spelled tanquam.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a compound from Latin tam + quam, “so as”.[2][3][1] ⟨Tam⟩ goes back to Proto-Indo-European *teh₂m; ⟨quam⟩ is the accusative feminine of the relative pronoun quī.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius.[4] Plautus uses it in a comparison: tenebrae ibi erant tamquam in puteō, “it was dark there, as in a well”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Tamquam introduces comparisons, “just as, as”, and with a conditional clause (tamquam sī) or the subjunctive “as if, as though”, both for imagined cases and for things that are not so.[2][3] It marks a term used loosely, “a kind of”, softens a bold word (“so to speak”), and is used from Seneca the Elder on to introduce examples, “as for example”.[2] With verbs of accusing it gives the alleged ground, “on the ground that”.[2]

In Church Latin it is “just as, as it were, as if”.[5]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: tamquam in puteō.[2][6]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero: ex urbe tamquam ē vinclīs ēvolāvissent, “they had flown out of the city as if out of chains”.[2][6]
  • 59 BC–17 AD – Livy writes that a priest changed everything tamquam deum monitū, “as if warned by the gods”.[2][6]

Meanings

Conjunction

  1. Just as, as, like.[2][3][1][5]
  2. A kind of, quasi- (of a term used loosely).[2]
  3. (with sī or the subjunctive) As if, as though.[2][3][1]
  4. As for example.[2]
  5. So to speak, as it were.[2][3][1]
  6. On the ground that (with verbs of accusing).[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de