Etymologically
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usque

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈʊs.kʷɛ][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈus.kʷe][1]

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

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