"Q" Word Origins

From Irish Ó Caoinleáin, from caoin ("delicate, refined") + dealbh ("shape").

The surname is borrowed from Irish Ó Coinn ("descendant of Chief").

From Spanish quinua, borrowed from the Andean Quechua language.

From Late Latin quīnquangulum, use as noun of neuter of quīnquangulus (“pentagonal”). By surface analysis, quinqu- + -angle.

* From Middle French quint, from Latin quīntus. Doublet of quintus. * (firefighting vehicle): In reference to its five functions: pump, water tank, fire hose, aerial device, and ground ladders.

From Romance Spanish Quintana and Portuguese Quintana.

First attested in verbal use in 1812, in adjectival use in 1851, and in nominal use in 1889; from the Classical Latin quīntus (“fifth”); in the verbal sense after decimate, and in the botanic senses by mistaken analogy with ternate.

PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle English, borrowed from Middle French, from Medieval Latin quinta essentia (“fifth essence, aether”), equivalent to quint- + essence. "Essence" in this context is a synonym for "element". In pre-atomic/Aristotelian theory, there are four known elements or essences — Earth, Air, Fire and Water — and a putative fifth element (aether), which is considered to be of exceptional superior quality to the other four basic elements.

Built from "quintessence" plus the adjective suffix "-al"; "quintessence" itself comes from the old idea of a mysterious "fifth element" beyond earth, air, fire, and water.

From French quintette, from Italian quintetto, diminutive of quinto (“fifth”), itself from Latin quintus, related to quīnque (“five”).

From French quintillion. By surface analysis, quint- (“five”) + -illion.

A less common form of Quentin.

Variant of Quentin, merged with an Old English place name meaning "queen's town".

From quintuple + -et, from Middle French quintuple.

From Latin quintus, meaning "fifth" — the same root behind the modern word "quint."

Borrowed from South Slavey kǫ́ yíi (“in the house”).

Of uncertain origin; often linked to Latin quippe 'indeed, to be sure', used sarcastically. The connection is plausible but not settled.

First attested in the 1540s. Of uncertain origin. Possibly from Middle English *querk, from Old Norse kverk (“a bend or angle, especially below a cross-beam or below the chin, the bight of an axe", also "throat, gullet”), from Proto-Germanic *kwerkō (“throat, gullet”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- (“to devour; maw”). Cognate with Scots querk (“throat", also "any hollow in the body, such as an armpit, groin, instep, etc.”), Icelandic kverk (“interior angle”). Also partially from dialectal quirk, querk (“a whim, fancy, fuss, huff, complaint", also "to peevishly grumble, grunt, sigh, croak, die”), from Middle English querken, *quirken (“to choke”), from Old Norse kvirkja (“to choke, strangle”), from the same origin above. Related to dialectal querken, quirken (“to choke”). Likely not related to queer.

From quirk + -le.

Simply "quirk" plus the adjective-forming suffix "-y."

Borrowed from Mexican Spanish cuarta, meaning "whip."

Uncertain; perhaps quiz + -by, or from queer or Queer Street (“difficult circumstances”).

Back-formation from quisling.

Named after Norwegian military officer Vidkun Quisling (1887–1945), who ruled the Nazi collaborationist government of Norway during World War Two. From Quislinus, Latinization of Quislin, based on the Danish place name Kvislemark. This term first appeared in 1940. The surname is seemingly supposed to mean "one who is from Kvislemark", and is equivalent to Kvisle(mark) + -ing (suffix designating a person of a certain origin or with certain qualities). However, the earlier form of the name, Quislinus/Quislin, appears to have been a fanciful coinage based upon Kvisle(mark) + Latin -inus (“suffix indicating a relationship of position, possession, or origin”), and only later on came to be reinterpreted as containing Norwegian -ing (“suffix designating a person of a certain origin or with certain qualities”). Kvislemark is composed of Danish kvissel (“cleft branch”) + mark (compare Danmark). kvissel itself is a derivative of Old Norse kvísl (“fork [as in a 'fork in the road']”), which ultimately comes (by dissimilation) from Proto-Germanic *twīsilō. Cognates include Old English twisla (“confluence, junction, fork of a river or road”) and Old High German zwisila (“forked implement, twig,

From Old French quitte, "free, discharged," ultimately from the same Latin root as "quiet" and "quite" — the idea of being at rest or settled.

Developed from "quit," ultimately from Latin quiētus — the same root behind "quiet" and "quietus."

Borrowed from Spanish Quito, named after the Quitu tribe.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

From Middle English quytaunce, from Old French quitance (modern French quittance), from Latin quietantia. The verb is derived from the noun.

Traces back to a Middle English word for a burn mark or scar, ultimately linked to a French verb meaning "to cook" — the modern sense of "one who quits" developed separately in English.

The arrow-case sense comes from Old Dutch by way of Anglo-Norman French; the shaking sense developed separately in Middle English.

Named after Don Quixote, the idealistic knight-errant hero of Miguel de Cervantes's 17th-century novel.

First recorded in the 1780s with an unclear origin — early uses meant an odd or eccentric person, and the "test of knowledge" sense only became common in the 19th century.

From quiz + -er.

From quiz + -y. Sense 2 possibly influenced by English inquisitive.

Variant of coin; compare coign.

From Middle English coyte (“flat stone”), from Old French coite, from Latin culcita. Doublet of quilt.

Borrowed from Latin quondam. Compare whilom.

From a Latin legal phrase meaning "of whom we want you to be one," originally used to name specific people required to be part of an official commission.

From Latin quota pars, meaning "how large a part."

From Medieval Latin quotātiō, tied to quotāre ("to number" or "to mark"); the "repeated words" sense developed in English from the 17th century onward.

From Medieval Latin quotāre, "to number chapters," itself from Latin quotus ("which one in sequence"). The sense shifted over centuries from "cite a reference" to "repeat exact words" to "state a price."

From Anglo-Norman cotidian, cotidien, Middle French cotidian, cotidien, and their source, Latin cottīdiānus, quōtīdiānus (“happening every day”), from adverb cottīdiē, quōtīdiē (“every day, daily”), from an unattested adjective derived from quot (“how many”) + locative form of diēs (“day”).

From Latin quotiens 'how many times', from quot 'how many'.

From Arabic قُرَشِيّ (qurašiyy).