qui French · revision 16237

− Nearly all the uses of ''qui'' are attested before the end of the 12th century.^(DHLF 1992) Without an antecedent it meant “whoever” from the second half of the 10th century, often in sayings (''qui fai lo bien'' “whoever does good”), as in modern ''qui vivra verra''.^(TLFi)^(Petit Robert 2007) Until the 17th century it could also be a neuter interrogative, “what”, as in La Fontaine's ''Qui fait l'oiseau ?''^(Bloch & Wartburg 1989) The old separation of ''qui'' from its antecedent by several words became rarer, and its elision to ''qu''' was given up because it was confused with ''que''.^(DHLF 1992)