quomodo

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Latin quōmodo (In what way?).

NounEdit

quomodo (plural quomodos)

  1. (obsolete) The means, way, or method (of doing something).

LatinEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

Univerbation of quō (what, abl. sg.) +‎ modō (manner, way, abl. sg.). CO-spellings first attested in 2nd c. BCE in Pompeii. /d/-less variants (through allegro-speech consonant elision or some kind of metanalysis) securely attested from mid-1st c. CE onwards. The length of the latter ones' final vowel is unattested and most likely varied. Forms in /-ī/ most likely formed by analogy to cuius-/eiusmodī.

PronunciationEdit

  • (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈkʷoː.mo.doː/, [ˈkʷoːmɔd̪oː] or IPA(key): /ˈkʷoː.mo.do/, [ˈkʷoːmɔd̪ɔ]
  • (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈkwo.mo.do/, [ˈkwɔːmod̪o]
  • Note: the final vowel scanning as long is common in tmesis, variable in scenic verse, once in hendecasyllables (Catullus 10.7).

AdverbEdit

quōmodo (not comparable)

  1. (interrogative) in what manner or way?; how?
    1. (rhetorical) how is that possible (that)?
  2. in what condition or circumstances? how?
    Quōmodo tibi rēs sē habet?How's your business going along?
    1. Used in warnings, threats and exclamations.
      At scīn' quōmodo?You know what I'm gonna do?
      Sed quōmodo dissimulabat!But how he was faking it!
  3. (relative) in the same manner or way as; how, like
    1. (with the correlatives sīc or ita) in the manner in which, just as, just like
      • 1 cent. BC (curse tablet) CIL I2 1012 = CIL VI 140 = SIAtt-1, p. 82 = ILLRP 1144 = D 8749 = DefTab 139 = Kropp-01-04-04-03:
        Quōmodo mortuos, quī istīc sepultus est nec loquī nec sermōnāre potest, seic Rhodinē apud M(ārcum) Licinium Faustum mortua sit nec loquī nec sermōnāre possit
        Just like the dead man who's been buried here cannot speak nor talk [to anyone], so may Rhodine be dead for Marcus Licinius Faustus, nor be able to speak or talk [to him].
    2. (with subjunctive, introducing final clauses) by means of which, using which

SynonymsEdit

Related termsEdit

DescendantsEdit

Note: all inherited from the d-less variant, with the exception of Friulian.

ReferencesEdit

  • quōmodo” on page 1727 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
  • quōmodō̆” in volume 8, column 1287, line 38 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
  • Daniela Urbanová (2016), “Alcune particolarità della comparazione (quomodo – sic, quemadmodum – sic, ita uti – sic) in latino volgare, con particolare attenzione alle defixiones”, in Graeco-Latina Brunensia[1], issue 2, →DOI, →ISSN, page 329–343

Further readingEdit

  • quomodo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • quomodo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
  • Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
    • to detail the whole history of an affair: ordine narrare, quomodo res gesta sit
    • as the proverb says: ut or quod or quomodo aiunt, ut or quemadmodum dicitur