Where does “quelque chose” come from?
quelque chose (French) comes from French quelque, from French qué, from Portuguese quê, from Latin quī, from Latin -cumque, from Latin cumque, from Latin cum, from Old Latin com — resin, gum; to say, speak.
quelque chose (French): something
Definitions
- something
Ancestry of “quelque chose”, step by step
quelque chose traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via French quelque
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | French | quelque | some |
| 2 | French | qué | which; Alternative form of que; Isn’t it? Is it... |
| 3 | Portuguese | quê | what; a characteristic; cue |
| 4 | Latin | quī | who, that, which, what |
| 5 | Latin | -cumque | Used to derive indefinite adjectives, adverbs and... |
| 6 | Latin | cumque | however, whenever, howsoever, whensoever |
| 7 | Latin | cum | with, along with; at; -fold |
| 8 | Old Latin | com | Alternative form of cum |
| 9 | Proto-Italic | kom | with, along, at |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱóm | beside, near, by, with |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | ḱe | Deictic particle, here; Post-positional... |
| 12 | Middle English | kyt | — |
| 13 | German | kitt | putty certain kinds of cement used for fixing e.g. window panes |
| 14 | Old High German | kuti | — |
| 15 | Proto-West Germanic | kwidu | gum, resin |
| 16 | Proto-Germanic | kweduz | resin |
| 17 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷet- | resin, gum; to say, speak |