cãt

Forms

cãt^[1]

• Adjective and pronoun: feminine cãtã, masculine plural cãts, feminine plural cãti or cãte; also an adverb.^[2]
• Other spellings: cãntu in Wiktionary;^[1] CÎT, -ță, plural cîț, cîte, in Papahagi's dictionary, which also records cåt, că'tă;^[3][4] cît in Dalametra's Romanian-based spelling;^[5] câtu in DIARO;^[6] κᾶτ, κᾶτου and κούτου (kât, katu, kútu), plural kats, kati, and κᾶντου (kantu) in Nikolaidis's Greek script;^[7][8] Κάτου in Kavalliotis's word list, read kätu by its editor.^[9]
• Pascu adds căt from Boiagi's grammar and the Basme, and cut and cîntu from Nikolaidis.^[10]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin quantus (“how great, how much”), and the adverb is its neuter quantum (“how much”),^[3][10][1] as Nikolaidis had said.^[7] Wiktionary and Ciorănescu add that it was probably blended with quotus (“how many”): the regular outcome of quantus would have kept the n,^[1][11] which survives in the variant cãntu.^[8][1]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian cât, Megleno-Romanian cǫt and Istro-Romanian cât.^[11][12] Further west the Latin word gave Italian quanto, Spanish cuanto, Portuguese quanto and Catalan quant.^[13][11]

The Oxford Latin Dictionary analyses the word as quam (“how”) with a suffix, like tantus (“so great”), and compares Umbrian panta.^[14] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *kʷāntos, either from Proto-Indo-European *kʷéh₂onts (“how much”) or from the Proto-Italic accusative of the relative pronoun.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's word list of 1770, where Κάτου translates Modern Greek πόσος (pósos, “how much?”).^[9]

Semantic evolution

Aromanian kept the Latin uses: as an adjective and pronoun the word asks or states a quantity, "how much, how many", and as a relative it means "as much as, all those who".^[2][3] The adverb means "how much", "however much", and also "as, like" and "barely, hardly".^[3][15] Before a verb it came to mean "as soon as": the tales have cît agumsi "as soon as he arrived" and cîtu ntunică "as soon as night fell".^[15][10] DIARO also records it as a preposition of comparison, "as tall as".^[6]

Timeline

• 1770 – Κάτου “how much?” in Kavalliotis's word list.^[9]
• 1813 – căt in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.^[10]
• 1905 – cît “how much; as soon as; barely” in the glossary of P. Papahagi's tales.^[15]
• 1909 – kât, katu, kútu and kantu in Nikolaidis's dictionary.^[7][8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (interrogative) How much, how many.^[2][1][3]
2. (relative) As much as; all those who.^[2][3]

Adverb

1. How much; however much.^[3][1][6]
2. As, like.^[3]
3. Barely, hardly.^[3][16]
4. (before a verb) As soon as.^[15][10]

Related words

• Romanian cât

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 271
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 293
4. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 280
5. ^ Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 61
6. ^ a b c Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 219
7. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 208
8. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 195
9. ^ a b c Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 100
10. ^ a b c d e Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 66
11. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
12. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b c d Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 566
16. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 3