quirquir
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Latin[edit]
This entry has fewer than three known examples of actual usage, the minimum considered necessary for clear attestation, and may not be reliable. Latin is subject to a special exemption for languages with limited documentation. If you speak it, please consider editing this entry or adding citations. See also Help and the Community Portal.
Etymology[edit]
Probably an emphatic reduplication of *quir (“where”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis (“who, what”) + *-r (adverbial suffix), similar in construction to quisquis (“whoever, whatever”). Compare to the etymology of cūr (“why”).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈkʷir.kʷir/, [ˈkʷɪrkʷɪr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈkwir.kwir/, [ˈkwirkwir]
Adverb[edit]
quirquir (not comparable)
- The meaning of this term is uncertain. Possibilities include:
- Some type of emphatic interrogative or relative adverb, probably meaning “wherever.”
Usage notes[edit]
This term appears only in a difficult-to-translate augural formula cited in Marcus Terentius Varro, De lingua latina 7.8:
- templa tescaque m(eae) fines ita sunto
- quoad ego easte lingua nuncupavero
- ollaner arbos quirquir est quam me sentio dixisse
- templum tescumque m(ea) f(inis) esto in sinistrum
- ollaber arbos quirquir est quod me sentio dixisse
- templum tescumque m(ea) f(inis) esto ⟨in⟩ dextrum
- inter ea conregione conspicione cortumione
- utique eas rectissime sensi.[2]
References[edit]
- ^ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “cūr”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 155-156
- ^ Palmer, Leonard Robert. The Latin Language. University of Oklahoma Press, 1954. 66
- “?quirquir” on page 1716/3 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
- quirquir in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.