From the earlierquoius (the standard spelling until the early Empire), either fromProto-Italic*kʷojjos, fromProto-Indo-European*kʷosyo secondarily marked with the gen. sg. *-s, or fromProto-Indo-European*kʷo-s-yo-s, a thematic adjective likeAncient Greekποῖος(poîos,“of what sort?”) andOscanpúiiu(“cuia”),púiieh(“cuius”). The latter is more likely, since if the adjectival use had been a later development, it is hard to explain whyeius, with its adjective counterpartsuus, did not share this development. This genitive formation (probably original in pronouns) also appears in nominal forms like VALESIOSIO (on theLapis Satricanus, early 5th c. BC), but in these it was ultimately displaced by-ī.[1][2][3]
- (Classical Latin)IPA(key): /ˈkui̯.i̯us/,[ˈkʊi̯ːʊs̠]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical)IPA(key): /ˈku.jus/,[ˈkuːjus]
- Note: although the first vowel is a short /u/, it is often spelled with a macron in sources that use macrons to indicate long syllables rather than long vowels. The first syllable is made long by its final [j].
cuius
- genitivemasculine/feminine/neutersingular ofquī
Same as Etymology 1.
cuius
- genitivemasculine/feminine/neutersingular ofquis
Depending on Etymology 1, fromProto-Indo-European*kʷo-s-yo-s(“of what kind”), or less likely a reinterpretation of the genitive. These forms were considered rustic by some and even mocked (see example), yet survive into Romance.
cuius (femininecuia,neutercuium);first/second-declension determiner
- (interrogative)whose?
perh. before 4th c. CE, Numitorius,
Antibucolica 1.1, (fragment conserved in Donatus'
Vita Vergiliana):
- Tītyre, sī toga calda tibi est, quō tegmine fāgī?
Dīc mihi, Dāmoetā, 'cuium pecus' anne Latīnum?
Nōn, vērum Aegōnis nostrī; sīc rūre locuntur.- Say, Tityrus, if your toga is hot, what do you need the cover of the beech tree for?
Tell me, Damoetas, is "whose cattle" even a Latin expression?
No, it's my friend Aegon's; that's how they talk in the countryside.
- (relative)whose
c. 125CE – 180CE,
Apuleius,
Apologia 1.3:
- Sustineō enim nōn modo meam, vērum etiam philosophiae dēfēnsiōnem,cuia magnitūdō vel minimam reprehēnsiōnem prō māximō crīmine aspernātur.
- I am undertaking not just a defence of myself, but one of Philosophy too,whose greatness rejects even the smallest blame as if it were the greatest crime.
First/second-declension adjective.
- ^Bakkum, G.C.L.M (2009)The Latin dialect of the Ager Faliscus: 150 years of scholarship[1],→ISBN, pages133-134
- ^Weiss, Michael L. (2009)Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin[2], Ann Arbor: Beech Stave Press,→ISBN, page159
- ^Sihler, Andrew L. (1995)New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press,→ISBN,§ 194, 375.1
- “cujus (1)”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “cujus (2)”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879)A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “cuius”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891)An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- cujus inGaffiot, Félix (1934)Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
