usque

English

Etymology

Abbreviation of usquebaugh, from Irish uisce beatha (“water of life”) and Scottish Gaelic uisge beatha (“water of life”). Compare whisky and obsolete whiskybae.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌskweɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

usque (countable and uncountable, plural usques)

1. (obsolete) whisky

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *ū̆skʷe, from Proto-Indo-European *úds-kʷe, from *úd-s (“out, outward”, genitive) +‎ *-kʷe (“and”). Cognate with Sanskrit उच्चा (uccā́), Younger Avestan 𐬎𐬯𐬗𐬀 (usca, “up, out”), Russian вы- (vy-, “out from”), Proto-Germanic *ūt, English out.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈuːs.kʷe/, [ˈuːs̠kʷɛ] or IPA^(key): /ˈus.kʷe/, [ˈʊs̠kʷɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈus.kwe/, [ˈuskwe]
• De Vaan 2008 notes conflicting evidence of length in Romance descendants and argues this is most consistent with an originally long vowel, which may go back to a Proto-Indo-European *ūd (also continued in Germanic and Slavic). In contrast, Buck 1913 argues for a short vowel. Per Buck, the only Romance evidence for ū is French forms, but Old French included variants such as enjosque, josque that seem to point towards ŭ; Buck suggests that the form jusque that ultimately prevailed in French might have had an analogical origin. Malkiel 1983 likewise supports the interpretation that u in Old French enjusque had an analogical origin, with the vowel taken from sus (“above”) < sūrsum; compare Old French jus (“down”) < iūsum, with analogical alteration of the original vowel in deorsum.

Adverb

ū̆sque (not comparable)

1. constantly, continuously
2. (used with ab (“from”) or ad (“to”)) as far as, up to, right until, all the way
   • (Can we date this quote?), Latin Vulgate translation of Psalm 71:8;Canadian national motto

     Ā marī ū̆sque ad mare.

     From sea unto sea.

   • c. 35 BCE, Horace, Satires (book 1) 1.3:

     ab ōvō ū̆sque ad māla

     from the beginning to the end

     (literally, “from the egg to the apples”)

Derived terms

• abū̆sque (“all the way from”)
• adū̆sque
• quoū̆sque
• ū̆squequāque (“everywhere”)

Preposition

ū̆sque (+ accusative)

1. until, up to, right until

   usque somni tempus ― until bedtime

Usage notes

In Classical Latin, usque is mostly used as an adverb, modifying either a prepositional phrase or a noun phrase of a type that can stand on its own (e.g. the names of towns, which are regularly used without a preposition in the accusative or ablative). Poets and late prose writers sometimes use usque + accusative noun in contexts where older authors would have used usque ad + accusative, in which case it can be interpreted as a preposition.

Descendants

• Old French: enjosque, enjusque, enjesque, josque, jusque
  • French: jusque
• Occitan: duscas

Further reading

• “usque”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “usque”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• usque in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the territory of this race extends as far as the Rhine: haec gens pertinet usque ad Rhenum
    
  • from beginning to end: ab ovo usque ad mala (proverb.)
    
• usque in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[3], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “usque”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volumes 14: U–Z, page 73