quis

French

Etymology

From Old French quis, past participle of querre.

Participle

quis (feminine quise, masculine plural quis, feminine plural quises)

past participle of quérir

Participle

quis m pl

masculine plural of qui

Verb

quis

first/second-person singular past historic of quérir

Galician

Verb

quis

(reintegrationist norm) first/third-person singular preterite indicative of querer

Latin

Etymology 1

From Proto-Italic *kʷis, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷís. See there for cognates.

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kʷis/, [kʷɪs̠]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kwis/, [kwis]

Pronoun

quis or quī (feminine quae or qua or quis, neuter quid); relative/interrogative pronoun (with m optionally → n in compounds)

(interrogative pronoun)
1. (in the masculine singular, not agreeing with any other word) who
  Quis custōdiet ipsōs custōdēs? ― <But> who will watch the watchmen themselves?
  - 106 BCE – 43 BCE, Cicero, Pro S. Roscio Amerino 76.10:^[1]
    Nuntium misit. Quem aut ad quem?
    1903 translation by C. D. Yonge
    He sent a messenger—whom? or to whom?
2. (in the neuter singular, not agreeing with any other word) what
  Quid accidit? ― What happened?
  - 106 BCE – 43 BCE, Cicero, De Domo Sua 72.3:
    Quid est enim exsul?
    For what is an exile?
3. (agreeing in gender with a noun in a copular sentence) what
  - 70 BCE, Cicero, In Verrem 2.4.7.6-7:
    Pro deum hominumque fidem! Quid hoc est? Quae haec causa est? Quae ista impudentia?
    For heaven's sake! What is this? What is the cause? What is this impudence of yours?
  - c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Seneca the Younger, Hercules Furens 1138:
    Quis hic locus, quae regio, quae mundi plaga?
    What (is) this place? What area? What region of the world?
4. (as predicate agreeing in gender and number with subject) who
  Quis es? ― Who are you? (with the default emphasis on you)
  
  Quis es tū? ― Who are you? (with the marked emphasis on are)
  
  Quī sumus? ― Who are we?
5. (in the neuter quid) why, what for
  - 163 BCE, Publius Terentius Afer, Heauton Timorumenos 831:
    Quid stās, lapis? Quīn accipis?
    Why are you standing there, stupid? Take it!
(indefinite pronoun, alone and after si, nisi, num, ne) someone, something, anyone, anything; any
- c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 7.9:
  ut si quid etiam de sua salute ab Aeduis iniretur consili
  in order that if any <plot> concerning his own safety should have been organized by the Aedui
- 70 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Eclogues 6.9–10:
  Sī quis tamen haec quoque, sī quis
  captus amōre leget, tē nostrae, Vāre, myrīcae,
  tē nemus omne canet
  If anyone, if anyone reads this captured by love [for these verses], our tamarisks shall sing of you, Varus, and of you every grove shall sing.
- 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Evangelium secundum Ioannem.3.5:
  Respondit Iēsus: āmēn āmēn, dīcō tibi, nisi quis renātus fuerit ex aquā et Spīritū, nōn potest introīre in rēgnum Deī.
  Jesus replied, "verily verily, I say to you, unless a person is reborn out of water and Spirit, that person can't enter into the kingdom of God."
- 405 CE, Jerome, Vulgate Epistula ad Hebraeos.12.16:
  Nē quis fornicātor, aut profānus ut Esau, quī propter ūnam ēscam vendidit prīmitīva sua.
  Do not let anyone be a fornicator, nor a profane person like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

Usage notes

As a question word, quis usually occupies the first position in a clause, regardless of its syntactic function (although it may be preceded by a connector or a pragmatically fronted constituent).^[2]
In a question that does not contain a copular verb, the interrogative pronoun is usually masculine singular (quis) when asking for the identity of some person(s) and neuter singular (quid) when asking for the identity of some thing. In all periods of Latin, the masculine forms of quis can be used as a generic interrogative pronoun with a scope including both male and female beings despite its masculine grammatical gender (compare the generic sense of the masculine noun homo (“man, human being”)).
In questions that contain a form of the copula esse and a noun in the nominative case in addition to a nominative form of quis, the form of quis may match the gender and number of the noun by attraction. In this context, any form of quis can mean either "who" or "what": the meaning depends on the sense of the noun, while the form and grammatical gender is derived from agreement with the grammatical gender of the noun. But it is also possible alternatively for the neuter singular form quid to be used as a predicative pronoun with the sense "what" in a question with a masculine, feminine or plural subject, with no agreement in gender or number between the subject and the predicate. According to Lebreton, agreement is rarer than the use of the non-agreeing neuter interrogative pronoun, but neither is exceptional.^[3] It is not always simple in copular questions to determine whether a form of quis is acting as an interrogative pronominal subject, an interrogative pronominal predicate, or an interrogative adjective (see also quī), since the same grammatical case is used for all of these functions, and as mentioned above, Latin regularly places an interrogative word first regardless of its syntactic function in a clause.

Declension

Interrogative and indefinite pronoun.

	masculine	feminine	neuter	masculine	feminine	neuter
	singular			plural
nominative	quis quī¹	quae qua² quis	quid	quī¹	quae	quae qua²
genitive	cuius¹			quōrum	quārum	quōrum
dative	cui¹			quibus quīs¹
accusative	quem	quam quem	quid	quōs	quās	quae qua²
ablative	quō quī	quā quī	quō quī	quibus quīs¹

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).
²When used as an indefinite word (pronoun or adjective), the feminine nominative singular and neuter nominative/accusative plural is usually qua (with short ă) instead of quae. Indefinite quă is generally only found directly after sī, nisi, num, or nē and may be considered to be either enclitic to the preceding word or (in Priscian's view) forming a compound with it; accordingly, sīqua, numqua, and nēqua are sometimes written together (as also are the masculines sīquis, numquis, and nēquis). The form quă is never used for the feminine plural, nor for any form of the relative pronoun or of the interrogative pronoun or adjective.

An archaic form of the nominative plural is quēs (found on the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus).
In the early Latin of Ennius, Pacuvius, and Plautus,^[4] the form quis is sometimes used as a feminine nominative singular predicative interrogative pronoun or a feminine singular interrogative adjective, not only including women in a generic sense, but even in reference to a specific woman (see Citations:quis). But use of the form quis as a specifically feminine pronoun is rare in later time periods. The feminine nominative singular form quae is also attested in reference to a woman or in agreement with a feminine noun (see Citations:quae), but it can be difficult to determine whether feminine interrogative quae is a form of the pronoun quis (“who”), or a form of the interrogative adjective quī (“which”) (which can be used substantivally).

Adjective

quis or quī (feminine quae, neuter quod); relative/interrogative pronoun

(alternative nominative singular form of adjectival interrogative pronoun quī) which
- 29 BCE, Virgil, Georgics 2.177–178:
  Nunc locus arvorum ingeniis, quae robora cuique,
  quis color et quae sit rebus natura ferendis.
  Now give we place to the genius of soils, the strength of each, its hue, its native power for bearing.
- 116 CE, Tacitus, Annales 1.48:
  Tunc signo inter se dato inrumpunt contubernia, trucidant ignaros, nullo nisi consciis noscente quod caedis initium, quis finis.
  Then, passing the signal to one another, they broke into the tents and struck down their unsuspecting victims; while no one, apart from those in the secret, knew how the massacre had begun or where it was to end.

Declension

See quī.

Derived terms

Related terms

Latin correlatives ^(edit)

type	demonstrative			anaphoric	identity	interrogative/ relative	indefinite					negative	other
type	proximal	medial	distal	anaphoric	identity	interrogative/ relative	relative	indefinite	free choice	universal	negative polarity	negative	other
basic	hic	iste, istic	ille, illic	is	ipse, īdem	quis/quī	quisquis, quīcumque	quis, quī, quīdam, aliquis, aliquī, quispiam	quīvis, quīlibet	quisque	quisquam, ūllus, °aliquisquam	nēmō, nihil, nūllus	alius
dual						uter	utercumque	alteruter	utervīs, uterlibet	uterque		neuter	alter
place	hīc	istīc	illīc	ibī̆	ibī̆dem	ubī̆	ubiubi, ubī̆cumque	alicubī, uspiam	ubivīs, ubilibet	ubīque	usquam	nusquam, nūllibī	alibī, aliās
source	hinc	istinc	illinc	inde	indidem	unde	undecumque, undeunde	alicunde	°undelibet	undique			aliunde
destination	hūc, °hōrsum	istūc, °istōrsum	illūc, °illōrsum	eō	eōdem	quō, quōrsum	quōquō, quōcumque	aliquō, quōpiam, °aliquōvorsum	quōvīs, quōlibet		quōquam	nusquam, nūllōrsum	aliō, aliōrsum
method, means, path, place	hāc	istāc	illāc	eā	eādem	quā	quāquā, quācumque	aliquā	quāvīs, quālibet	quāque		nēquāquam, haudquāquam	aliā
manner	hōc modō	istō modō	illō modō	ita, sīc, eō modō	item, itidem	ut, quī, quō modō, quōmodo, quemadmodum	utut, utcumque, quōmodocumque	quī, quōdam modō, aliquō modō	quōmodolibet	utīque	ūllō modō	nūllō modō	aliter, aliōquī, alterō/aliō modō
time	num, nunc		ōlim	tum, tunc	simul	quandō, ‡cum	cumque, quandōcumque, quandōque	quondam, aliquandō	quandōlibet	quandōque	umquam	numquam	aliās
quantity				tam	†tamen, †tandem	quam	†quamquam	aliquam	quamvīs, quamlibet
size				tantus	tantusdem	quantus	quantuscumque	aliquantus	quantusvīs, quantuslibet
quality				tālis		quālis	quālis, quāliscumque	aliquālis	quālislibet
number				tot	totidem	quot	quotquot, quotcumque	aliquot	quotlibet
order				totus		quotus	quotuscumque	aliquotus	quotuslibet
repetition				totiēns		quotiēns	quotiēnscumque	aliquotiēns	quotiēnslibet
multiplication				totuplex		quotuplex
† Turned conjunction with original meaning somewhat dissimulated ° Rare ‡only used as a conjunction, not as an interrogative

Descendants

See qui.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kʷiːs/, [kʷiːs̠]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kwis/, [kwis]

Verb

quīs

second-person singular present active indicative of queō

References

^ M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903. Perseus
^ Harm Pinkster (2015) The Oxford Latin Syntax, volume 2, page 954
^ Jules Lebreton (1901) Études sur la langue et la grammaire de Cicéron, page 31
^ John Wordsworth (1874) Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin, page 101

Lule

Pronoun

quis

I

References

Antonio Maccioni / Machoni, Arte y vocabulario de la lengua lule y tonocoté (1732)

Portuguese

Alternative forms

quiz (obsolete, now a misspelling)

Pronunciation

(Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈkis/
- (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈkiʃ/

(Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈkiʃ/

Rhymes: (Brazil) -is, (Portugal, Rio de Janeiro) -iʃ
Hyphenation: quis

Verb

quis

first/third-person singular preterite indicative of querer

[1] M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge. London. George Bell & Sons. 1903. Perseus

[2] Harm Pinkster (2015) The Oxford Latin Syntax, volume 2, page 954

[3] Jules Lebreton (1901) Études sur la langue et la grammaire de Cicéron, page 31

[4] John Wordsworth (1874) Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin, page 101

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

quis

Contents

French

Etymology

Participle

Participle

Verb

Galician

Verb

Latin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Pronoun

Usage notes

Declension

Adjective

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Verb

References

Further reading

Lule

Pronoun

References

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Verb

Navigation menu

quis

French

Etymology

Participle

Participle

Verb

Galician

Verb

Latin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Pronoun

Usage notes

Declension

Adjective

Declension

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

Verb

References

Further reading

Lule

Pronoun

References

Portuguese

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Verb

Navigation menu

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