| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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Appendix I
Indo-European Roots |
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| ENTRY: | kwo- |
| DEFINITION: | Also kwi-. Stem of relative and interrogative pronouns.
Derivatives include who, whether, either, quorum, quip, and quality.
1a. who, whose, whom, from Old English hw , hwæs, hw m, who, whose, whom, from Germanic personal pronouns *hwas, *hwasa, *hwam; b. what, from Old English hwæt, what, from Germanic pronoun *hwat; c. why, from Old English hw , why, from Germanic adverb *hw ; d. which, from Old English hwilc, hwelc, which, from Germanic relative pronoun *hwa-lk- (*lk-, body, form; see lk-); e. how, from Old English h , how, from Germanic adverb *hw ; f. (i) when, from Old English hwenne, hwanne, when; (ii) whence, from Old English hwanon, whence. Both (i) and (ii) from Germanic adverb *hwan-; g. whither, from Old English hwider, whither, from Germanic adverb *hwithr ; h. where, from Old English hwr, where, from Germanic adverb *hwar-. a–h all from Germanic *hwa-, *hwi-. 2a. whether; neither, from Old English hwæther, hwether, which of two, whether; b. either, from Old English ghwæther, ther, either, from Germanic phrase *aiwo gihwatharaz, “ever each of two” (*aiwo, *aiwi, ever, and *gi- from *ga-, collective prefix; see aiw- and kom). Both a and b from Germanic *hwatharaz. 3. qua, quibble, quorum, from Latin qu, who. 4. hidalgo, quiddity, quidnunc, quip; kickshaw, from Latin quid, what, something. 5. quasi, from Latin quasi, as if (< quam + s, if; see swo-), from quam, as, than, how. 6. quodlibet, from Latin quod, what. 7. Suffixed form *kwo-ti. a. quote, quotidian, quotient; aliquot, from Latin quot, how many; b. further suffixed form *kwo-ty-o-. posology, from Greek posos, how much. 8. quondam, from Latin quom, when. 9. cooncan, from Latin quem, whom. 10. quantity, from Latin quantus, how great. 11. quality; kickshaw, from Latin qulis, of what kind. 12. cue2, from Latin quand, when (from *kwm + -d, to, til; see de-). 13. neuter, from Latin uter, either of two, ultimately from *kwo-tero- (becoming -cuter in such compounds as necuter, neither, from which uter was abstracted out by false segmentation). 14. ubiquity, from Latin ubi, where, ultimately from locative case *kwo-bhi (becoming -cubi in such compounds as alicubi, somewhere, from which ubi was abstracted out by false segmentation, perhaps under the influence of ibi, there). 15. cheese3, from Old Persian *ci -ciy, something ( < *kwid-kwid). (Pokorny k o- 644.) |
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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