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, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A Millar, , →OCLC, 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.

Latin

Alternative forms

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

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/, or IPA^(key): /ˈkʷoː.mo.do/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈkwo.mo.do/,
• 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 , so may Rhodine be dead for Marcus Licinius Faustus, nor be able to speak or talk .

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

Synonyms

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

Related terms

Descendants

• >? Friulian: cemût
• → English: quomodo

Reflexes of the late form cōmo:

Forms suffixed with mente:

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, number 2, →DOI, →ISSN, pages 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