quisquam

From quis +‎ quam (“any”). Compare to quisque.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷɪs.kʷãː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷis.kʷam]

quisquam (neuter quidquam or quicquam); relative/interrogative pronoun with an indeclinable portion

1. (masculine, chiefly in the negative) anyone
   • c. 52 BCE, Julius Caesar, Commentarii de Bello Gallico 7.28.4.1:

     nec fuit quisquam qui praedae studeret.

     and there was not anyone who gave attention to spoils.

   • Plautus, Bacchides. In: Plautus with an English translation by Paul Nixon, vol. I of five volumes, 1916, p. 330f.:

     ne a quoquam acciperes alio mercedem annuam, nisi ab sese, nec cum quiquam limares caput.

     Not to let you take a yearly fee from anyone else but him, or rub heads with anyone.

2. (neuter, chiefly in the negative) anything
   • 70 BCE, Cicero, In Verrem 2.4.48.8:

     Qui cum in convivium venisset, si quicquam caelati aspexerat, manus abstinere, iudices, non poterat.

     When he came to a banquet, if he saw anything engraved, he could not keep his hands off, judges.

• The negative polarity counterpart of nēmō (“nobody”) and nihil (“nothing”). Typically used in clauses that contain a preceding negative word, often nec/neque. In Classical Latin, "nec quisquam" was preferred over "et nēmō".^[1] Other words that can license its use include vix (“scarcely”), sine (“without”), and comparatives (see also downward entailment). In conditional or interrogative clauses, its usage can overlap with other indefinite pronouns, especially quis. After sī, nē, num, an, it is more usual to find quis, but quisquam can occur, perhaps expressing a more emphatic sense "any at all" or "any whatsoever". Quisquam is not used in nisi-clauses.^[2]
• Like other pronouns, it can take a partitive genitive. The neuter can be used with the genitive singular of a neuter second-declension adjective, e.g. quicquam mali 'anything wrong', or with an agreeing adjective, as in quicquam bonum 'anything good'.
• Plural forms are unattested in Classical Latin, as with nēmō (“nobody”) and nihil (“nothing”). The 4th-century grammarian Charisius (2, 7) says the plural is not used.^[3][4][5] Forms of ūllus may be used in place of the unused plural forms.^[6]
• Notes on gender:
  • When used as an indefinite pronoun, the forms in the column labeled "Masc./Fem." typically take masculine grammatical agreement but encompass anyone regardless of sex; compare the masculine pronouns quis (“who?”) and nēmō (“nobody”).
  • Feminine forms are very rare; ūlla, ūllam, etc. could be used instead^[7] (see Citations:ullus). Nominative quisquam and accusative quemquam are found as feminine pronouns in the anteclassical poets Plautus and Terence (see Citations:quisquam); compare anteclassical interrogative quis f, quem f. Feminine quaequam (nom. sg.) and quamquam (acc. sg.) occur postclassically, but are scarcely attested in Classical Latin (see Citations:quaequam). No feminine ablative form occurs in Classical Latin outside of the adverbial expressions haud/haut quāquam = haudquāquam and nec quāquam = nēquāquam (or in "negas nuptam quaquam" in Pomponius as cited by Charisius^[8]); compare the adverb quā.
  • To express the sense of the neuter pronoun quidquam/quicquam in the genitive, dative and ablative, the periphrastic expressions ūllī̆us reī f, ūllī reī f, and ūllā rē f^[9] may be used (compare how nūllī̆us reī, nūllī reī, and nūllā rē function as suppletive genitive, dative and ablative forms of the indeclinable pronoun nihil (“nothing”)^[10]), as in "sūmptū nē parcās ūllā in rē, quod ad valētūdinem opus sit" (Cicero Epistulae ad Familiares 16.4.2.8). The forms cuiusquam, cuiquam, quōquam are occasionally used as adjectival modifiers of neuter nouns, but are usually masculine rather than neuter when used by themselves as pronouns.
  • For the masculine pronoun, the genitive cuiusquam is frequent, but ūllī̆us can optionally be used instead.^[11] The ablative quōquam is attested as a pronoun in Classical Latin^[12] (see Citations:quoquam), but is relatively rare;^[13][14] ūllō can be used instead^[15][14] (see Citations:ullus; compare the common use of nūllō in place of nēmine.) The form quōquam is more often an adverb. An alternative masculine ablative form quīquam is found in Plautus and possibly also in Apuleius.^[16]

Negative polarity indefinite pronoun.

¹In Republican Latin or earlier, alternative spellings could be found for the following forms of quī/quis and its compounds: the masculine nominative singular or plural quī (old spelling quei), the genitive singular cuius (old spelling quoius), the dative singular cui (old spelling quoi or quoiei), the dative/ablative plural quīs (old spelling queis).

quisquam (feminine quaequam, neuter quodquam); relative/interrogative pronoun with an indeclinable portion

1. (chiefly in the negative) any

   Synonym: ūllus

   • 68 BCE – 44 BCE, Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum 9.6.5.8:

     Quid tu autem possis, aut quid homo quisquam?

     • 1913 translation by E.O. Winstedt

       Yet what could you or any man do?

The synonymous adjective ūllus (“any”) may be preferred depending on the number, gender, meaning and case of the accompanying noun. In Classical Latin, only singular forms of quisquam are securely attested. As an adjective, it is used mostly with masculine nouns that denote persons, such as homō (“man”) or scrīptor (“writer”); sometimes with collective nouns of any gender; rarely with nouns that denote impersonal things. Compare the adjectival use of nēmō (“nobody”).^[17] Classical Latin usage can be summarized as follows (see Citations:quisquam):

• Masculine nominative and accusative forms: With personal masculine nouns, Cicero prefers quisquam over ūllus in the nominative (e.g. quisquam scrīptor) and uses both quemquam and ūllum in the accusative (e.g. quemquam/ūllum scrīptōrem).^[18] With impersonal masculine nouns, ūllus and ūllum are usual, but quisquam and quemquam are found several times in Lucretius and sporadically in other authors.
• Feminine nominative quaequam and accusative quamquam are not found in Classical Latin, except one uncertain example of "ad quamquam rem" in Seneca the Younger. See Citations:quaequam. Usually ūlla and ūllam are used instead with feminine nouns, personal and impersonal (see Citations:ullus). The anteclassical poets Plautus and Terence use quisquam and quemquam with personal feminine nouns (e.g. "quisquam alia mulier").
• Neuter nominative/accusative adjective forms are not found in Classical Latin: ūllum is used instead. Quodquam is found only postclassically. Quidquam/quicquam is typically a pronoun, but Plautus uses it adjectivally or appositively in "quicquam facinus" (compare the adjectival use of quidquid).
• Genitive cuiusquam and dative cuiquam are preferred by Cicero over ūllī̆us and ūllī with personal masculine nouns (e.g. cuiusquam scrīptōris, cuiquam scrīptōrī)^[18] and are occasionally used with feminine and neuter nouns in classical Latin.
• Ablative quōquam is rare as an adjective in Classical Latin: it is found once with a masculine noun in Cicero ("homine quoquam") and once with a neuter noun in Suetonius ("quoquam incepto"). The form ūllō m or n is preferred instead even with personal masculine nouns (e.g. homine ūllō/ūllō homine). There are many postclassical examples of quōquam as a masculine or neuter adjective. See Citations:quoquam. In Plautus, the alternative ablative singular quīquam is attested with masculine nouns ("quiquam homine", "quiquam viro"). Feminine ablative nouns are used with ūllā f.

A full declensional paradigm with quaequam, quamquam, quāquam, quodquam, and plural forms is given by the late grammatical texts Instituta artium^[19] by Pseudo-Probus and Ars grammatica by Diomedes Grammaticus.^[20][21] However, some forms (such as the vocative) may be purely theoretical.

Negative polarity indefinite determiner.

¹Only attested in postclassical Latin. In Classical Latin, forms of ūllus were used instead.
²Only attested as a feminine form in the preclassical Latin of authors like Plautus.
³Attested only once in Classical Latin. Usually ūllam was used instead.
⁴Attested, but rare in Classical Latin. Usually ūllō was used instead.

• nēquīquam

• nēquāquam
• haudquāquam

• “quisquam”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “quisquam”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• quisquam in Ramminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)), Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[2], pre-publication website, 2005-2016