quidam
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]quidam (plural quidams)
- A nobody; a person of no importance. [from 16th c.]
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, III.12:
- A quidam gallant determined upon a time to surprise both my house and my selfe.
- 1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives, vol. IV, letter 77:
- She singing a miserable ditty, a bead-roll of lamentable rhymes, strung together by this Quidam!—This Henley!
French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]quidam m (plural quidams)
- used to designate persons whose name are unknown or not mentioned
- a person whose identity is not indicated, in a conversation, a writing
- 2015 January, Virginie Despentes, Vernon Subutex, volume 1, Éditions Grasset, →ISBN:
- Noël regarde autour de lui, cherche les yeux de ses potes, il est hilare. Ils savent que ça ne présage rien de bon pour le quidam.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- individual
Further reading
[edit]- “quidam”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Latin
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From quis + -dam (indefinite adverbial suffix). Compare quondam (“at one time”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /ˈkʷiː.dam/, [ˈkʷiːd̪ä̃ˑ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈkwi.dam/, [ˈkwiːd̪äm]
Pronoun
[edit]quīdam (feminine quaedam, neuter quiddam); relative/interrogative pronoun (with m optionally → n in compounds) with an indeclinable portion
- someone, a certain one/thing; something
- (Can we date this quote?), Seneca, Epistulae ad Luculium, III, 28:
- Quidam vitiis gloriantur.
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Usage notes
[edit]Not to be confused with quidem.
Declension
[edit]Indefinite pronoun.
Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Nominative | quīdam | quaedam | quiddam | quīdam1 | quaedam | ||
Genitive | cuiusdam2 | quōrundam quōrumdam |
quārundam quārumdam |
quōrundam quōrumdam | |||
Dative | cuidam3 | quibusdam4 | |||||
Accusative | quendam quemdam |
quandam quamdam |
quiddam | quōsdam1 | quāsdam | quaedam | |
Ablative | quōdam | quādam | quōdam | quibusdam4 |
1An alternative masculine nominative/accusative plural form quēsdam occurs in Accius.
2The genitive singular was spelled quoiusdam before the Augustan period.
3The dative singular was spelled quoidam before the Augustan period.
4The dative/ablative plural has a rare alternative form quīsdam/queisdam.
Adjective
[edit]quīdam (feminine quaedam, neuter quoddam); relative/interrogative pronoun (with m optionally → n in compounds) with an indeclinable portion
- a certain (person or thing), some (person or thing), one (in the sense of "a specific" person or thing not previously introduced in the present discourse)
- c. 62 BCE, Cicero, chapter 1, in Pro Archia Poeta[1], §2:
- etenim omnes artes, quae ad humanitatem pertinent, habent quoddam commune vinculum et quasi cognatione quadam inter se continentur.
- Indeed all the arts, which pertain to humanity, have some common link and by a certain almost-kindred are held together.
Declension
[edit]Indefinite determiner.
Number | Singular | Plural | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Case / Gender | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter | |
Nominative | quīdam | quaedam | quoddam | quīdam | quaedam | ||
Genitive | cuiusdam1 | quōrundam quōrumdam |
quārundam quārumdam |
quōrundam quōrumdam | |||
Dative | cuidam2 | quibusdam3 | |||||
Accusative | quendam quemdam |
quandam quamdam |
quoddam | quōsdam | quāsdam | quaedam | |
Ablative | quōdam | quādam | quōdam | quibusdam3 |
1The genitive singular was spelled quoiusdam before the Augustan period.
2The dative singular was spelled quoidam before the Augustan period.
3The dative/ablative plural has a rare alternative form quīsdam/queisdam.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- “quidam”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “quidam”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- quidam in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- quidam in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
- I have a few words to say on this: mihi quaedam dicenda sunt de hac re
- I have a few words to say on this: mihi quaedam dicenda sunt de hac re
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
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- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
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- Latin terms suffixed with -dam
- Latin 2-syllable words
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- Latin words in Meissner and Auden's phrasebook