quapropter

quapropter

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /kʷaːˈprop.ter/, [kʷäːˈprɔpt̪ɛr]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kwaˈprop.ter/, [kwäˈprɔpt̪er]
• The Lewis & Short dictionary misprints a breve on the -a-; see quotations for metrical examples of the long -ā-.

Adverb

quāpropter (not comparable)

1. (interrogative) why?, wherefore?
   • c. 200 BCE, Plautus, Mostellaria 273, (meter: trochaic septenarius):

     PHILEMATUS. Quāpropter? SCAPHA. Quia ēcastor mulier rēctē olet, ubi nihil olet.

   • 166 BCE, Publius Terentius Afer, Andria 161-163, (meter: iambic senarius):

     SIMO. […] quem ego crēdō manibus pedibusque obnīxē omnia
     factūrum, magis id adeō mihi ut incommodet
     quam ut obsequātur gnātō. SOSIA. Quāpropter? SIMO. Rogās?

2. (relative) on which account, wherefore
   • c. 99 BCE – 55 BCE, Lucretius, De rerum natura 3.371-372, (meter: dactylic hexameter):

     Quāpropter neque nātālī prīvāta vidētur
     esse diē nātūra animae nec fūneris expers.

References

• “quapropter”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “quapropter”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• quapropter in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette