utcumque

Forms

utcumque (conjunction and adverb)^[2][1] It is also spelled utcunque, in early Latin utquomque, and is often written ut cumque, sometimes with words between.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from ut (“as, how”) and -cumque (“-ever”).^[2][1][4] De Vaan traces ⟨ut⟩ to Proto-Italic *kwutV(s) (“how”) and Proto-Indo-European *kwu- (“where, how”), cognate with Oscan puz (“that, as”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD's first example is Plautus' Amphitruo: “are you a slave or free?” — “whichever my mind pleases”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

As a conjunction it means “in whatever way, according as”, and in Horace “whenever”.^[2][3] Mela uses it of place, “wherever”, of Miletus in Ionia.^[2] As an adverb, especially in Livy, it means “in any event, at any rate”, and “as best one can”, as of the peace with Philip patched up somehow.^[2][1]

Church Latin glosses it “howsoever, in any way soever, somehow”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus, “whichever I please”.^[2][4]
• 65–8 BC – Horace in the sense “whenever”.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy, “at any rate” and “somehow”.^[2][4]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. In whatever way, however; according as.^[2][3][1][6]
2. Whenever; wherever.^[2][1]

Adverb

1. In any event, at any rate; as best one can, somehow.^[2][1][6]

Related words

• ut
• quicumque

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c 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. ^ 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 c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson