ubicumque

Forms

ubicumque or ubīcumque (not comparable)^[1] It is also spelled ubicunque, and Old Latin has -quomque, which Plautus separates from ubi by other words.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin ubī (“where”) + -cumque.^[3][1][4] De Vaan derives ⟨ubī⟩ from Proto-Italic *kʷuþei and Proto-Indo-European *kʷu-dʰi (“where”), cognate with Oscan puf (“where”), Umbrian pufe (“where”), Sanskrit कुह (kúha, “where”) and Old Church Slavonic къде (kŭde, “where”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[5][4] in whom a slave, asked where he will be, answers “wherever I please”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It is a relative, “in whatever place, wherever”, and also indefinite, “anywhere at all” or “somewhere or other”: Horace says losing one's good name is bad anywhere, and Seneca that one must die somewhere, some time.^[3]

Church Latin has it for “wherever, wheresoever”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus.^[3][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace in the sense “anywhere”.^[3][4]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca in the sense “somewhere”.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. In whatever place, wherever.^[3][2][1][6]
2. In any place whatever; somewhere or other.^[3][1]

Related words

• ubī
• ubīque
• quandōque

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson