FromMiddle Englishquoth,quath, fromOld Englishcwæþ (first and third person past indicative ofcweþan(“to say, speak to, address, exhort, admonish”)), fromProto-Germanic*kwaþ (first and third person past indicative ofProto-Germanic*kweþaną(“to say”)). Unrelated toquote.
quoth
- (archaic or literary, now defective)simplepast ofquethe;said
1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym;Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, inThe American Review[1], volume I, number II, New York, N.Y., London:Wiley & Putnam, […],→OCLC:Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore! /Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."
1883,Howard Pyle, chapter V, inThe Merry Adventures of Robin Hood […], New York, N.Y.: […] Charles Scribner’s Sons […],→OCLC:“Good morrow to thee, jolly fellow,”quoth Robin, “thou seemest happy this merry morn.” ¶ “Ay, that am I,”quoth the jolly Butcher, “and why should I not be so? Am I not hale in wind and limb? Have I not the bonniest lass in all Nottinghamshire? And lastly, am I not to be married to her on Thursday next in sweet Locksley Town?”
quoth (third-person singular simple presentquoths,present participlequothing,simple past and past participlequothed)
- (defective, modal, auxiliary, nonstandard, archaic) Tosay.
1807,Samuel Henshall,The Gothic Gospel of Saint Matthew, from the Codex Argenteus of the Fourth Century; with the Corresponding English, or Saxon, from the Durham Book of the Eighth Century, in Roman Characters; […], London: […] J. White, […], chapter XXVII, page71:But the Healing-one stood before the under-king, and the under-king arraigned him,quothing, thou art the king of the Jews? the Healing-onequoths him, thouquoths.
1864,Francis Palgrave, “The Conqueror, from Hastings to the Coronation. 1066.”, inThe History of Normandy and of England, volumes III (Richard Sans-Peur—Richard Le-Bon—Richard III.—Robert Le-Diable—William the Conqueror), London:Macmillan & Co., page402:The owner had the power of transmitting the possession to an heir by bequest, byquothing or speaking forth the name of the intended successor to the lord.
1908,Howard Pyle, “The Mysterious Lady With the Silver Veil”, inThe Ruby of Kishmoor, New York, N.Y., London:Harper & Brothers Publishers,page15:“Why, no,”quothed Jonathan; “for to tell thee the truth, friend, though I am a man of peace, being of that religious order known as the Society of Friends, I am not so weak in person nor so timid in disposition as to warrant me in being afraid of any one. […]”
1909,Dairy Foods Review, page13:The old cow laughs, for she feels sure of a square dear now; and the wise rivenquoths;quoths he: “Tis well done, let the good work go on,”[…]
1916,The Pottery & Glass Salesman, page21, column 3:“’Ods blood!”quoths Lee, “’Tis ‘Honey Dew.’”
1962,The Paris Review, page43:“Sooth,”quoths the Invincible Vince de la Crau, “this great Wind is within me and is clearly meant as a sign of my approaching Folly. […]”
1995, Sheelagh Kelly,Shoddy Prince:‘I really don’t know how the poor people are going to cope,’quothed Oriel to her employer in response to his query about what she would be doing over Christmas.
1996, Donald G. Schueler, “An evening interlude”, inA Handmade Wilderness, Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: a Mariner Book,Houghton Mifflin Company, page116:Then, one evening I arrived home to find him sitting atop the doorway transom like Poe’s raven,quothing his usual owl equivalent of “I’m starving!” while roundabout the furniture displayed a day’s worth of fumets and splashy excrement.
2009, Augustin D. Etienne, “In The Growth And Development Of Israel”, inGod at Work: The Answer to Today’s Perplexing Questions,Xlibris, page89:“Could I have some of your food? I’m so hungry I could die.” Esauquothed.
2014, Anthony Labriola,Poor Love & Other Stories, Atlanta, Ga.: Anaphora Literary Press,→LCCN, page162:When the minister should ask if Judith should be his wife, “Ay, by gogs-wouns,”quoths he, and swears so loud that, all amazed the minister lets fall the book;
- Quoth is considered adefective verb because it is now the only recognizable form of the verbquethe, all other forms of which areobsolete. It was originally a past-tense form like "said". Some later use, which treatsquoth as a base form and inflects it (quoths,quothed, etc), is nonstandard.
- Quoth almost always comes before the subject, usually in the form "quoth he/she." It also often comes after theobject, which is whatever is being said by the subject, written between quotation marks. It can also be inserted in the middle of an object phrase, where "quoth [subject]" is separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.
quoth
- Alternative form ofquath(“spoke”,etc.)
