quidam
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
NounEdit
quidam (plural quidams)
- A nobody; a person of no importance. [from 16th c.]
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, III.12:
- A quidam gallant determined upon a time to surprise both my house and my selfe.
- 1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives, vol. IV, letter 77:
- She singing a miserable ditty, a bead-roll of lamentable rhymes, strung together by this Quidam!—This Henley!
- 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, III.12:
FrenchEdit
PronunciationEdit
NounEdit
quidam m (plural quidams)
- Used to designate persons whose name are unknown or not mentioned
- Person whose identity is not indicated, in a conversation, a writing
- individual
Further readingEdit
- “quidam”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
LatinEdit
EtymologyEdit
From quī + -dam (demonstrative ending).
PronunciationEdit
PronounEdit
quīdam (feminine quaedam, neuter quiddam); relative/interrogative pronoun (with m optionally → n in compounds) with an indeclinable portion
- someone, a certain one/thing; something
- Quidam vitiis gloriantur.
- Some people boast with their vices. (Seneca, Epistulae ad Luculium, III,28)
Usage notesEdit
Not to be confused with quidem.
DeclensionEdit
Relative/interrogative pronoun (with m optionally → n in compounds) with an indeclinable portion.
Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Nominative | quīdam | quaedam | quiddam | quīdam1 | quaedam | ||
Genitive | cuiusdam1 | quōrundam quōrumdam |
quārundam quārumdam |
quōrundam quōrumdam | |||
Dative | cuidam1 | quibusdam quīsdam1 | |||||
Accusative | quendam | quandam | quiddam | quōsdam | quāsdam | quaedam | |
Ablative | quōdam | quādam | quōdam | quibusdam quīsdam1 |
1In Republican Latin or earlier, alternative spellings could be found for the following forms of quī/quis and its compounds: the masculine nominative singular or plural quī (old spelling quei), the genitive singular cuius (old spelling quoius), the dative singular cui (old spelling quoi or quoiei), the dative/ablative plural quīs (old spelling queis).
AdjectiveEdit
quīdam (feminine quaedam, neuter quoddam); relative/interrogative pronoun (with m optionally → n in compounds) with an indeclinable portion
- Certain (person or thing), some (person or thing), one [in the sense of "a specific"] (person or thing not previously introduced in the present discourse).
DeclensionEdit
Relative/interrogative pronoun (with m optionally → n in compounds) with an indeclinable portion.
Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Nominative | quīdam | quaedam | quoddam | quīdam1 | quaedam | ||
Genitive | cuiusdam1 | quōrundam quōrumdam |
quārundam quārumdam |
quōrundam quōrumdam | |||
Dative | cuidam1 | quibusdam quīsdam1 | |||||
Accusative | quendam quemdam |
quandam quamdam |
quoddam | quōsdam | quāsdam | quaedam | |
Ablative | quōdam | quādam | quōdam | quibusdam quīsdam1 |
1In Republican Latin or earlier, alternative spellings could be found for the following forms of quī/quis and its compounds: the masculine nominative singular or plural quī (old spelling quei), the genitive singular cuius (old spelling quoius), the dative singular cui (old spelling quoi or quoiei), the dative/ablative plural quīs (old spelling queis).
See alsoEdit
ReferencesEdit
- “quidam”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “quidam”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- quidam in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- quidam in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
- Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
- I have a few words to say on this: mihi quaedam dicenda sunt de hac re
- I have a few words to say on this: mihi quaedam dicenda sunt de hac re