"Q" Word Origins

Qasim

Arabic

Borrowed from Arabic قَاسِم (qāsim).

Qatar

Arabic

An English rendering of the Arabic name Qaṭar.

QED

Latin

An initialism of quod erat demonstrandum, 'which was to be demonstrated', itself a translation of the formula used by Greek mathematicians such as Euclid.

Qi

Origin

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 齊/齐 (Qí).

Qian

Origin

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 錢/钱 (Qián).

Qiang

Origin

From the Mandarin name Qiāng, rendered in the standard Hanyu Pinyin romanization system.

qiangic

Origin

From Qiang + -ic.

Qiao

Origin

From Mandarin 喬/乔 (Qiáo).

qin

Origin

From Mandarin Qín, rendered using the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system; the instrument and the dynasty are unrelated words that happen to romanize the same way.

qing

Origin

From Mandarin Qīng, rendered using the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system.

Qiu

Origin

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 丘/邱 (Qiū), among other characters.

Qt

Origin

By abbreviation.

qu

Origin

A romanization of the Mandarin word for "district," borrowed directly into English administrative and geographic writing about China.

qua

Latin

Borrowed directly from Latin quā, meaning "in the capacity of."

quack

Middle English

Originally imitative of the sound itself, from Middle English quacken; the "fake doctor" sense grew out of "quacksalver," an old term for someone who loudly hawked bogus remedies.

quad

Latin

A shortening of words built on Latin quattuor, "four," the same root behind "quadrant" and "quadruple."

quadfecta

Origin

Blend of quad- + perfecta.

quadrad

Origin

From quadr- + -ad.

quadragenarian

Origin

From Latin quadrāgēnārius (“containing 40”) + -an, either directly or via French quadragénaire, from Latin quadrāgēnus (“40 each”) + -ārius (“-ary”), from quadrāgintā (“four tens, forty”). Cognate with quadragenary, quadragenarious, and quadragene.

quadrangle

Origin

Inherited from Middle English quadrangle, borrowed from Old French quadrangle, from Late Latin quadrangulum.

quadrangular

Origin

From Middle English quadrangulere, from Late Latin quadrangulāris. Compare Middle French and French quadrangulaire. By surface analysis, quadr- + -angular.

quadrangulation

Origin

From quadrangulate + -ion.

quadrant

Latin

From Latin quadrans, "a quarter part," through Old French — the same root family as "quarter" and "quart."

quadriceps

Origin

Borrowed from Latin quadriceps, literally “four-headed”, from quadri- + -ceps, from quattuor (“four”) and from caput (“head”).

quadricycle

Origin

From quadri- + cycle; compare bicycle, tricycle.

quadrilateral

Origin

Learned borrowing from New Latin quadrilaterus + -al.

quadrille

Origin

French, in sense of “group of knights”, from Spanish cuadrilla, diminutive of cuadra (“square”) (compare also cuadra (“four”)), from Latin quadra.

quadrillion

Origin

From French quadrillion, from quadri- (“four”) + -illion. By surface analysis, quadr- + -illion.

quadriplegic

Latin and Greek

A hybrid of Latin quadri- 'four' and Greek plēgē 'stroke, blow', on the model of paraplegic.

quadruple

Latin

From Latin quadruplus, itself built from quadri- ("four") plus -plus ("fold"), the same pattern as "double" and "triple."

quadruplet

Origin

From quadruple + -et.

quadruplex

Origin

From Latin quadruplex (“fourfold, quadruple”), from quattuor (“four”) + plico (“fold”). By surface analysis, quadru- + -plex.

quaff

Origin

Uncertain. Suggestions include connection with Old Irish cuäch (“cup, goblet, bowl; cauldron, large vessel; bowl, cup”) (whence Scots quaich, queff). The noun is derived from the verb.

quagga

Origin

From Dutch quagga (whence also Afrikaans kwagga), from a Khoisan term, probably Haiǁom, Khoekhoe ǁkoaah, apparently of imitative origin.

quagmire

Origin · 1500

Formed from "quag" (a bog or marsh) plus "mire" (wet, muddy ground), first recorded in the late 1500s; the figurative "difficult situation" meaning followed roughly two centuries later.

quahog

Origin

Borrowed from Narragansett poquaûhock, meaning "hard clam," an Indigenous Algonquian word from New England.

quail

Dutch

The bird sense and the "lose courage" verb sense come from two different, unrelated old words that happen to look identical in modern English; the verb traces to Middle Dutch quelen, "to suffer."

quaint

Latin

From Old French cointe ("clever, elegant"), from Latin cognitus ("known"); the meaning shifted over centuries from "clever" to "curiously old-fashioned but charming."

quake

Old English

From Old English cwacian, "to tremble, shake, chatter," of imitative origin describing a shaking motion.

Quaker

Origin

From "quake" plus "-er"; the nickname reportedly began when founder George Fox told a judge to "tremble at the word of the Lord," and the label stuck to members of the movement.

quakerish

Origin

From Quaker + -ish.

quaking

Old English

From Old English cwacung, the noun form of "quake."

qualification

Middle French · 1540

Borrowed from Middle French qualification in the 1540s, built on the verb "qualify" plus the noun-forming suffix "-ation."

qualify

Middle French

Borrowed from Middle French qualifier, built from "quality" plus the verb-forming suffix "-fy."

qualitative

Latin

From Latin qualitas 'quality', formed from qualis 'of what kind'.

quality

Latin

From Latin qualitas, coined by Cicero as a direct translation of the Greek poiotes, itself invented by Plato from poios, "of what kind."

qualm

Origin

Perhaps from Middle English qualm, cwalm (“death, sickness, plague”), which is from Old English cwealm (West Saxon: "death, disaster, plague"), ūtcualm (Anglian: "utter destruction"), from Proto-West Germanic *kwalm (“killing, death, destruction”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to stick, pierce; pain, injury, death”), whence also quell. Although the sense development is possible, this has the problem that there are no attestations in intermediate senses before the appearance of "pang of apprehension, etc." in the 16th century. The alternative etymology is from Dutch kwalm or German Qualm (“steam, vapor, mist”) earlier “daze, stupefaction”, which is from the root of German quellen (“to stream, well up”). The sense “feeling of faintness” is from 1530; “uneasiness, doubt” from 1553; “scruple of conscience” from 1649.

quandary

Origin · 1500

First recorded in the 1500s; its exact origin is unclear, though some scholars think it may be a playful reshaping of the older word "wandreth," meaning trouble or hardship.