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)
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.[1]
Pronunciation
- (Classical) 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).[1] 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.[2] Malkiel 1983 likewise supports the interpretation that u in Old French enjusque had an analogical origin, with the vowel taken from sus < sūrsum.[3]
Adverb
ū̆sque (not comparable)
- constantly, continuously
- 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”)
- ab ōvō ū̆sque ad māla
- (Can we date this quote?), Latin Vulgate translation of Psalm 71:8;Canadian national motto
Derived terms
- abū̆sque (“all the way from”)
- adū̆sque
- quoū̆sque
- ū̆squequāque (“everywhere”)
Usage notes
In Classical Latin, usque is mostly used as an adverb,[5][6] 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,[7] in which case it can be interpreted as a preposition.
References
- De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “ū̆sque”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 646
- Buck, Carl D. (1913) “Hidden Quantities again”, in The Classical Review, volume 27, number 4, pages 125-126
- Malkiel, Yakov (1983) From Particular to General Linguistics: Selected Essays 1965-1978, John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 302
- Harm Pinkster (2015) The Oxford Latin Syntax, volume 1. The Simple Clause, page 837
- Harm Pinkster (2015) The Oxford Latin Syntax, volume 1. The Simple Clause, page 1229
- Clifford, Arthur ((Can we date this quote?)) An Introduction to the Latin Language, Oxford
- Karl Gottlob Zumpt (1853) Leonhard Schmitz, Charles Anthon, transl., A Grammar of the Latin Language, 3rd edition, pages 243-244
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, 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.)
- the territory of this race extends as far as the Rhine: haec gens pertinet usque ad Rhenum
- usque in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700, pre-publication website, 2005-2016