usque

English

Etymology

Abbreviation of usquebaugh, from Irish uisce beatha (“water of life”) and Scottish Gaelic uisge beatha (“water of life”). Compare whisky and obsolete whiskybae.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌskweɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

usque (countable and uncountable, plural usques)

1. (obsolete) whisky

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *ū̆skʷe, from Proto-Indo-European *úds-kʷe, from *úd-s (“out, outward”, genitive) +‎ *-kʷe (“and”). Cognate with Sanskrit उच्चा (uccā́), Younger Avestan 𐬎𐬯𐬗𐬀 (usca, “up, out”), Russian вы- (vy-, “out from”), Proto-Germanic *ūt, English out.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈuːs.kʷe/, [ˈuːs̠kʷɛ] or IPA^(key): /ˈus.kʷe/, [ˈʊs̠kʷɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈus.kwe/, [ˈuskwe]
• De Vaan 2008 notes conflicting evidence of length in Romance descendants and argues this is most consistent with an originally long vowel, which may go back to a Proto-Indo-European *ūd (also continued in Germanic and Slavic). In contrast, Buck 1913 argues for a short vowel. Per Buck, the only Romance evidence for ū is French forms, but Old French included variants such as enjosque, josque that seem to point towards ŭ; Buck suggests that the form jusque that ultimately prevailed in French might have had an analogical origin. Malkiel 1983 likewise supports the interpretation that u in Old French enjusque had an analogical origin, with the vowel taken from sus < sūrsum.

Adverb

ū̆sque (not comparable)

1. constantly, continuously
2. all the way (sometimes with ab (“from”) or ad (“to”))
   • (Can we date this quote?), Latin Vulgate translation of Psalm 71:8;Canadian national motto

     Ā marī ū̆sque ad mare.

     From sea unto sea.

   • c. 35 BCE, Horace, Satires (book 1) 1.3:

     ab ōvō ū̆sque ad māla

     from the beginning to the end

     (literally, “from the egg to the apples”)

Derived terms

• abū̆sque (“all the way from”)
• adū̆sque
• quoū̆sque
• ū̆squequāque (“everywhere”)

Preposition

ū̆sque (+ accusative)

1. until, up to, right until

   usque somni tempus ― until bedtime

Usage notes

In Classical Latin, usque is mostly used as an adverb, modifying either a prepositional phrase or a noun phrase of a type that can stand on its own (e.g. the names of towns, which are regularly used without a preposition in the accusative or ablative). Poets and late prose writers sometimes use usque + accusative noun in contexts where older authors would have used usque ad + accusative, in which case it can be interpreted as a preposition.

Descendants

• Old French: enjosque, enjusque, enjesque, josque, jusque
  • French: jusque
• Occitan: duscas

Further reading

• “usque”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “usque”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• usque in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the territory of this race extends as far as the Rhine: haec gens pertinet usque ad Rhenum
    
  • from beginning to end: ab ovo usque ad mala (proverb.)
    
• usque in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[3], pre-publication website, 2005-2016