usque

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈʌskweɪ/

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usque (countable and uncountable, plural usques)

1. (obsolete) whisky

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.^[1]

However, cf. Lewis & Short, which says: usquĕ, adv. [us- for ubs-, from ubi with locative s; and que for qued, old abl. of quis; v. Corss. Ausspr. 2, 471; 838; cf.: quisque, usquam].

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈʊs.kʷɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈus.kʷe]
• 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).^[1] 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.^[2] Malkiel 1983 likewise supports the interpretation that u in Old French enjusque had an analogical origin, with the vowel taken from sus (“above”) < sūrsum;^[3] compare Old French jus (“down”) < iūsum, with analogical alteration of the original vowel in deorsum.
• The first syllable of usque is found scanned short in resolution in Plautus' Truculentus and in Terence's Heauton Timorumenos, which would be congenial to the vowel being short by nature.

usque (not comparable)

1. constantly, continuously
2. (used with ab (“from”) or ad (“to”)) as far as, up to, right until, all the way
   • 63 BCE, Cicero, Catiline Orations Oratio in Catilinam Prima in Senatu Habita.21:

     Eōsdem facile addūcam, ut tē haec quae vastāre iam prīdem studēs relinquentem, usque ad portās prōsequantur.

     I shall easily persuade the same [men], that as you are leaving these [things] which you have long been eager to destroy, they may escort [you] all the way to the [city] gates.

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

     ab ōvō usque ad māla

     from the beginning to the end

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

   • (Can we date this quote?), Latin Vulgate translation of Psalm 71:8; Canadian national motto

     Ā marī usque ad mare.

     From sea unto sea.

• abusque (“all the way from”)
• adusque (“all the way to”)
• usquequāque (“everywhere”)

usque (+ accusative)

1. until, up to, right until^[4]

   usque somni tempus ― until bedtime

In Classical Latin, usque is mostly used as an adverb,^[5][6] 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,^[7] in which case it can be interpreted as a preposition.

• quousque (“how long? how far?”)

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

• “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 (16 July 2016 (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, volume 14: U–Z, page 73