usque

Forms

usque (not comparable)^[1] A Pompeian inscription has usce; with -ne it becomes usquine in Plautus.^[2]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Proto-Italic *ūskʷe, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *úds-kʷe, from the genitive of *úd (“out, up”) and the particle *-kʷe (“and”), formed like absque.^[2][1] Compare Sanskrit उच्चा (uccā́, “above”) and Avestan usča (“upwards”).^[1]

Lewis and Short derived it instead from ubi with a locative ⟨s⟩ and ⟨-que⟩.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Naevius on:^[4] dictātor … pervehitur usque ad oppidum, “the dictator rides all the way to the town”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Usque marks a limit reached all the way: in space “right up to, as far as” (usque ad, with town names Mīlētum usque), in time “right until” (usque dum, usque dōnec), and in a series “from … up to”.^[2][1] It marks degree, “to the point of” (usque adeō “to such an extent”), and usque … ut “so far that”.^[2]

Without a limit it means “continually, constantly, all the time”, and also “thoroughly, completely”.^[2][1][5] In later Latin it is a preposition with the accusative, “until, up to”.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius: usque ad oppidum.^[2][4]
• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: ībō odōrāns quasi canis vēnāticus usque dōnec persecūtus vulpem erō, “I'll go sniffing like a hunting dog until I've tracked down the fox”.^[2][4]
• 190–159 BC – Terence: Mīlētum usque, “as far as Miletus”.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. All the way (to), right up (to), as far (as).^[2][3][1][5]
2. (of time) Right until;^[2] usque dum, usque dōnec, until.^[2]
3. usque adeō, to such an extent.^[2]
4. constantly, continually.^[2][1][5]
5. Thoroughly, completely.^[2]

Preposition

1. (with accusative) until, up to.^[1][2]

Word family

• abusque
• adusque
• usquequāque
• eōusque
• hōcusque
• nuncusque
• quousque
• hūcusque

Related words

• absque
• semper
• usquam

Usage notes

Döderlein contrasts semper, “always” without limit, with usque, “always” within a limit, as in usque dum.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper