qual

Forms

qual m or f (plural quais)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quālis (“of what kind, such as”), written Old Galician-Portuguese qual in the oldest texts, where the plural appears as Old Galician-Portuguese quaes in 1214 and Old Galician-Portuguese quales in 1272.^[2][3][1] An old form Old Galician-Portuguese cal is recorded from the 14th century.^[2] Nascentes says it still lives in the popular plural ⟨cais⟩.^[4] In Galicia the form with ⟨c⟩ is found from 1264 and the plural Old Galician-Portuguese cays from 1262, and the modern Galician form is cal.^[5]

In Latin the word asked about or compared a quality and answered to tālis (“such”).^[6] In Romance it became a plain interrogative and relative pronoun, taking over the work of quis (“who?”) and quī (“who, which”), while the old sense of quality lived on more weakly.^[6][7] Nascentes too describes the change from a word of quality to a relative and interrogative.^[4][8]

The same Latin word is Spanish cual, French quel, Italian quale and Romanian care.^[7][1] It goes back to Proto-Italic *kʷālis, perhaps formed on the interrogative and relative stem Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- with a suffix in ⟨l⟩, and is compared with Ancient Greek πηλίκος (pēlíkos, “how great”).^[1] The DHLF also sees in it the vowel ⟨a⟩ and a suffix ⟨-li-⟩ added to the stem of the Latin interrogative.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record is the plural quaes in 1214.^[2] In the 13th-century cantigas of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda the word is already interrogative, as in Martin Soarez's e qual conselh' é' qui melhor “and which counsel is the best here”, and relative, as in Pai Gomez Charinho's qual mal, senhor, me quer matar “which pain, lady, wants to kill me”.^[5] The same poems use it in correlation with tal and with the sense “how great”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the relative use with the article (o qual, a qual) to the 13th century.^[2] Barbosa's dictionary of 1611 has the proverb Com qual te achares, com tal te afaze “adapt yourself to whomever you are with”, and renders qual de dous “which of two” with Latin uter.^[10] Bluteau explains the same distinction for the interrogative: Latin quis when asking about more than two persons or things, uter when asking about two.^[11]

Modern Portuguese also uses it as a conjunction of comparison, “like, as”, repeated as a distributive (qual... qual “one... another”), and as an interjection of surprise or denial, as in the reinforcing qual nada!.^[2][12] Set phrases include cada qual “each one” and tal qual “exactly like”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1214 – the plural quaes.^[2]
• 1262 – cays in a Galician charter of Montederramo;^[5] cal and caes there in 1264.^[5]
• 1272 – the plural quales.^[2]
• 13th century – interrogative and relative qual in the cantigas of the Cancioneiro da Ajuda.^[5]
• 14th century – the form cal.^[2]
• 1350 – first occurrence in the CTA corpus, in the Trasladação de S. Nicolau (a 14th-century witness).^[13]
• 1611 – Barbosa gives the proverb Com qual te achares, com tal te afaze.^[10]
• 1712–1728 – Bluteau separates the interrogative for two from the one for more than two.^[11]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. (interrogative) which: which person or thing among several: Qual destes caminhos é o mais curto?^[2][14][1]
2. (interrogative) Of what kind or nature: Qual foi a resposta dele?^[2][14]
3. (relative, with the definite article) who, which: a casa na qual nasci.^[2][12]
4. (in correlation with tal) Such as, as: tal qual.^[2][15]
5. (indefinite, repeated) One... another: qual chorava, qual ria.^[2][15]

Conjunction

1. Like, as (in comparisons): gritava qual um louco.^[2][12]

Interjection

1. Expresses surprise, disbelief or denial;^[2][12] qual nada! “nothing of the sort!”.^[2][12]

Word family

• qualquer

Related words

• qualidade
• qualificar
• Latin quālis
• Galician cal
• Spanish cual

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 n o p q Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. qual
3. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. qual
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. qual
5. ^ a b c d e f Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. qual
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 257
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6927
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 425
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. quel
10. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. qual
11. ^ a b Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. qual
12. ^ a b c d e Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. qual
13. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. qual
14. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. qual
15. ^ a b Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. qual