"Q" Word Origins

quant

Origin

Shortening.

quantification

Origin

Coined by Scottish philosopher Sir William Hamilton: "quantification of the predicate".

quantify

Medieval Latin

From Medieval Latin quantifico, a term introduced into logic by the philosopher Sir William Hamilton.

quantitative

Latin

From Latin quantitas 'quantity, extent', itself from quantus 'how much'.

quantity

Latin

From Latin quantitas, built on quantus, meaning "how much."

quantum

Latin

From Latin quantum, "how much" — the neuter form of quantus.

quarantine

Italian

From Italian quarantina, "about forty," after the original 40-day isolation period imposed on ships arriving in Venice during plague outbreaks.

quark

German · 1963

The physics sense was coined in 1963 by physicist Murray Gell-Mann, who later linked the spelling to a nonsense line in James Joyce's novel Finnegans Wake. The cheese sense comes separately from German Quark.

quarrel

Latin

From Old French querele, "complaint, dispute," from Latin querela, "complaint," ultimately from queri, "to complain."

quarry

Latin

The stone-pit sense traces to Latin quadrare, "to square" (referring to squared-off blocks of stone); the hunted-animal sense comes from a separate Old French word for the parts of a kill fed to hunting dogs.

quart

Latin

From Old French quarte, from Latin quartus, "fourth" — a quart being a quarter of a gallon.

quarta

Origin

From Portuguese quarta, from Latin quartus (“fourth”), q.v., in reference to the units making up one-fourth of the alqueire (“Portuguese bushel”) or arrantel (“Portuguese pound”). Doublet of quart, quater, and cuaderon.

quarter

Latin

From Latin quartarius, related to quartus, "fourth" — the same root behind quart and quarterly.

quarterback

Origin

From quarter + back, naming the position's spot on the field just behind the line.

quarterly

Origin

From quarter + -ly.

quartermaster

Origin

From quarter + master, originally "master of quartering" — the officer in charge of housing troops.

quartern

Origin

From Middle English quartern, quarteroun, quartroun, from Anglo-Norman quatroun (“quarter of a hundred”), from Old French quarter (“fourth”).

quartet

Italian

From Italian quartetto, from quarto, "fourth."

quartile

Origin

From Middle French quartil, from Medieval Latin quartilus. By surface analysis, quart + -ile.

quartz

German

Borrowed from German Quarz, ultimately from a Slavic word related to "hard."

quasar

Origin · 1964

A blend of "quasi-stellar," coined in 1964 to describe these starlike radio sources.

quash

Latin

From Old French quasser, from Latin quatere, "to shake," blended with Latin cassare, "to annul."

Quasimodo

Latin

From the opening words of that Sunday's Latin Mass, quasi modo geniti infantes, "as newborn babes."

quasiregular

Origin

From quasi- + regular.

quaternary

Origin

Derived from Latin quaternārius (“containing or consisting of four”), from quaternī (“four each”, “four at a time”) + -ārius (whence the English suffix -ary); compare the French quaternaire.

quaternion

Origin

From Middle English quaterniǒun, from Late Latin quaterniō, from quaternī (“four each”) + -iō, from quater (“four times”). Doublet of kern. The mathematics sense was coined by Irish mathematician and astronomer William Rowan Hamilton in 1843.

quaver

Origin

From Middle English quaveren, frequentative form of quaven, cwavien (“to tremble”), equivalent to quave + -er. Cognate with Low German quabbeln (“to quiver”), German quabbeln, quappeln (“to quiver”). More at quave, quab, quiver.

quay

French

From Middle English key, ultimately from a Gaulish word meaning "enclosure." The modern spelling was changed to match French quai.

Quayle

Origin

From a Manx form of McPhail; also possibly an English nickname from the quail bird.

quayside

Origin

From quay + side.

qubit

Origin

Blend of quantum + bit, a play on cubit (“historical unit of length”). Coined by American physicist Benjamin Schumacher in 1995.

Que

Catalan

Borrowed both from Hokkien 郭 (Keh) and Catalan Qué; a doublet of Quek, Guo, and Kwok.

qué pasa

Spanish

Spanish qué 'what' plus pasa, third person singular of pasar 'to happen, to pass'.

qué pasó

Spanish

Spanish qué 'what' plus pasó, the preterite of pasar 'to happen'.

que sera sera

Romance

A fatalistic tag in Romance-language form, meaning 'what will be, will be'; it is not grammatical modern Spanish, Italian or French. It circulated in English as a motto well before the 1956 song 'Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)', which made it a household phrase.

qué tal

Spanish

Spanish qué 'what' plus tal 'such, so', literally something like 'what such?'

quean

Origin

From Middle English quene (“young, robust woman”), from Old English cwene (“woman, female serf”), from Proto-West Germanic *kwenā, from Proto-Germanic *kwenǭ (“woman”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn (“woman”). Doublet of gyne and queen. Cognate with Dutch kween (“a barren woman, a barren cow”), Low German quene (“barren cow, heifer”), German Kone (“wife”), Swedish kvinna (“woman”), Icelandic kona (“woman”), Gothic 𐌵𐌹𐌽𐍉 (qinō, “woman”), 𐌵𐌴𐌽𐍃 (qēns, “wife”).

queasy

Old Norse

Possibly from an Old Norse word for a boil or sore, later shaped by an Anglo-Norman word meaning "to make uneasy."

Quebec

French

From French Québec, from Algonquin kepék ("(it) narrows"), referring to where the Saint Lawrence River narrows near Quebec City.

queen

Old English

From Old English cwen, "queen, wife," from a Germanic root meaning "woman."

Queenie

Origin

From queen + -ie, an affectionate diminutive suffix.

Queensland

Origin

From Queen + -s- + -land, named in honour of Queen Victoria.

queep

Origin

Imitative.

queer

German · 1510

Recorded in Scots from around 1510, probably from a Low German word meaning "oblique" or "off-center." It began to be used to describe gay people in the late 19th century.

queerhood

Origin

From queer + -hood.

quell

Old English

From Old English cwellan, "to kill" — related to the modern word kill.

quench

Old English

From Old English cwencan, related to a Germanic root for extinguishing.

quenelle

Origin

Borrowed from French quenelle, from German Knödel. Doublet of knaidel.