quomodo

quomodo

English

Etymology

From Latin quōmodo (“In what way?”).

Noun

quomodo (plural quomodos)

1. (obsolete) The means, way, or method (of doing something).
   • 1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], OCLC 928184292, book VII:

     Mr Northerton was desirous of departing that evening, and nothing remained for him but to contrive the quomodo, which appeared to be a matter of some difficulty.

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Latin

Alternative forms

• quō modō
• cōmodo, cōmo (non-literary, epigraphy and manuscripts)
• quōmo (non-literary, 4-5th c. CE manuscripts)
• quōmodī, comdī, quāmodī, quīmodī (non-standard)

Etymology

Univerbation of quō (“what”, abl. sg.) +‎ modō (“manner, way”, abl. sg.). CO-spellings first attested in 2nd c. BCE in Pompeii. /d/-less variants (through allegro-speech consonant elision or some kind of metanalysis) securely attested from mid-1st c. CE onwards. The length of the latter ones' final vowel is unattested and most likely varied. Forms in /-ī/ most likely formed by analogy to cuius-/eiusmodī.

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkʷoː.mo.doː/, [ˈkʷoːmɔd̪oː] or IPA^(key): /ˈkʷoː.mo.do/, [ˈkʷoːmɔd̪ɔ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkwo.mo.do/, [ˈkwɔːmod̪o]
• Note: the final vowel scanning as long is common in tmesis, variable in scenic verse, once in hendecasyllables (Catullus 10.7).

Adverb

quōmodo (not comparable)

1. (interrogative) in what manner or way?; how?
   1. (rhetorical) how is that possible (that)?
2. in what condition or circumstances? how?

   Quōmodo tibi rēs sē habet? ― How's your business going along?

   1. Used in warnings, threats and exclamations.

      At scīn' quōmodo? ― You know what I'm gonna do?

      Sed quōmodo dissimulabat! ― But how he was faking it!

3. (relative) in the same manner or way as; how, like
   1. (with the correlatives sīc or ita) in the manner in which, just as, just like

      • 1 cent. BC (curse tablet) CIL I² 1012 = CIL VI 140 = SIAtt-1, p. 82 = ILLRP 1144 = D 8749 = DefTab 139 = Kropp-01-04-04-03:

        Quōmodo mortuos, quī istīc sepultus est nec loquī nec sermōnāre potest, seic Rhodinē apud M(ārcum) Licinium Faustum mortua sit nec loquī nec sermōnāre possit

        Just like the dead man who's been buried here cannot speak nor talk [to anyone], so may Rhodine be dead for Marcus Licinius Faustus, nor be able to speak or talk [to him].

   2. (with subjunctive, introducing final clauses) by means of which, using which

Synonyms

• (interrogative): ut, quī, quemadmodum
• (relative): (ita) ut, quemadmodum, sīcut

Related terms

Latin correlatives ^(edit)

type	interrogative	indefinite	(medial) demonstrative	proximal demonstrative	distal demonstrative	relative	indefinite relative	identity	other
basic	quis, quī	quis, quī, quīdam, aliquis, aliquī, quisque, quisquam, aliquisquam, quispiam, ūllus	is, iste, istic	hic	ille, illic	quī	quisquis, quīcumque	ipse, īdem	alter, alius
dual	uter	alteruter, uterque				uter	utercumque
number	quot	aliquot	tot			quot	quotquot, quotcumque	totidem
order	quotus		totus			quotus	quotuscumque
quantity	quam	aliquam	tam			quam	†quamquam	†tamen, †tandem
size	quantus	aliquantus	tantus			quantus	quantuscumque	tantusdem
quality	quālis	aliquālis	tālis			quālis	quālis, quāliscumque
manner	ut, quī, quō modō, quōmodo, quemadmodum	utique, quī, quōdam modō, aliquō modō	ita, sic, eō/istō modō	hōc modō	illō modō	ut, quī, quō modō, quōmodo, quemadmodum	utut, utcumque, quōmodocumque	item, itidem	aliter, aliōquī, alterō/aliō modō
method, path, place	quā	aliquā, quāque	eā, istāc	hāc	illāc	quā	quāquā, quācumque	eādem	aliā
place	ubi	alicubi, ubique, usquam, uspiam	ibi, istic	hīc	illīc	ubi	ubiubi, ubicumque	ibidem	alibī, aliās
source	unde	alicunde, undeunde	inde, istinc	hinc	illinc	unde	undecumque	indidem	aliunde
destination	quō, quōrsum	aliquō, quōquam, quōpiam, °aliquōvorsum	eō, istūc, °istōrsum	hūc, °hōrsum	illūc, °illōrsum	quō	quōquō, quōcumque	eōdem	aliō, aliorsum
time	quandō	quondam, aliquandō, quandōque, umquam	tum, tunc	num, nunc	ōlim	cum, quandō	cumque, quandōcumque, quandōque	simul	aliās
exact time	quota hōra		ea/ista hōra	hac hōra	illa hōra	quota hōra	quotacumque hōra	eadem hōra	altera/alia hōra
repetition	quotiēns	aliquotiēns	totiēns			quotiēns	quotiēnscumque
multiplication	quotuplex		totuplex			quotuplex
† Turned conjunction with original meaning somewhat dissimulated ° Rare

Descendants

Note: all inherited from the d-less variant, with the exception of Friulian.

• Aromanian: cum
• Asturian: cómo
• Catalan: com
• Friulian: cemût
• Istriot: cume
• Italian: come
• Neapolitan: commo, comme
• Occitan: coma
• Old French: com, cum, con, conme, comme
  • French: comme, comment
    • Louisiana Creole French: konmen
  • Norman: coume, coument
  • Picard: conme
  • Walloon: kimint, comint
• Picard: conme, kmint
• Old Portuguese: como
  • Fala: cumu
  • Galician: como
  • Portuguese: como
• Romanian: cum
• Romansch: co, cu
• Sardinian: comente, comenti, cumenti
• Sicilian: comu
• Old Spanish: cuemo, como
  • Spanish: como, cómo
    • Papiamentu: komo
• Walloon: kimint, comint
• → English: quomodo
• → Interlingua: como
• → Ido: kom

References

• “quōmodo” on page 1727 of the Oxford Latin Dictionary (2nd ed., 2012)
• “quōmodō̆” in volume 8, column 1287, line 38 in the Thesaurus Linguae Latinae (TLL Open Access), Berlin (formerly Leipzig): De Gruyter (formerly Teubner), 1900–present
• Daniela Urbanová (2016), “Alcune particolarità della comparazione (quomodo – sic, quemadmodum – sic, ita uti – sic) in latino volgare, con particolare attenzione alle defixiones”, in Graeco-Latina Brunensia‎, issue 2, DOI:10.5817/GLB2016-2-23, ISSN 1803-7402, page 329–343

Further reading

• “quomodo”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• quomodo in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • to detail the whole history of an affair: ordine narrare, quomodo res gesta sit
    
  • as the proverb says: ut or quod or quomodo aiunt, ut or quemadmodum dicitur