Etymologically
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cãt

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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]
  • 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