cuius

Latin

Etymology 1

From the earlier quoius (the standard spelling until the early Empire), either from Proto-Italic *kʷojjos, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷosyo secondarily marked with the gen. sg. *-s, or from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo-s-yo-s, a thematic adjective like Ancient Greek ποῖος (poîos, “of what sort?”) and Oscan 𐌐𐌞𐌉𐌉𐌖 (púiiu), 𐌐𐌞𐌉𐌉𐌄𐌇 (púiieh). The latter is more likely, since if the adjectival use had been a later development, it is hard to explain why eius, with its adjective counterpart suus, did not share this development. This genitive formation (probably original in pronouns) also appears in nominal forms like VALESIOSIO (on the Lapis Satricanus, early 5th c. BC), but in these it was ultimately displaced by -ī.[1][2][3]

Alternative forms

  • cujus, cuiius, cuijus, cujjus (typographic variants)
  • quoius, quoiius, quoijus (Republican spelling)

Pronunciation

  • (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈkʊj.jʊs]
  • (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈkuː.jus]
  • Note: although the first vowel is a short /u/, it is often spelled with a macron in sources that use macrons to indicate long syllables rather than long vowels. The first syllable is made long by its final [j].

Pronoun

cuius

  1. (relative) genitive common singular of quī

Determiner

cuius

  1. (interrogative) genitive common singular of quī
Descendants
  • →⇒ Italian: cuiusso

Etymology 2

See Etymology 1.

Pronoun

cuius

  1. (interrogative) genitive common singular of quis

Etymology 3

Depending on Etymology 1, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo-s-yo-s (“of what kind”), or less likely a reinterpretation of the genitive. These forms were considered rustic by some and even mocked (see example), yet survive into Romance.

Determiner

cuius (feminine cuia, neuter cuium); first/second-declension determiner

  1. (interrogative) whose?
    • between the 1st c. BCE and 2nd c. CE, Numitorius, Antibucolica 1.1 (fragment conserved in Suetonius' De viris illustribus):
      Dīc mihi, Dāmoetā, “cuium pecus” anne Latīnum?
      Nōn, vērum Aegōnis, nostrī sīc rūre locuntur.
      Tell me, Damoetas, is “whose cattle” even a Latin expression? (and/or whose cattle is that, is it Latin?)
      No, it's Aegon's, that's how our folk talk in the countryside.
  2. (relative) whose
    • 158 CE – 159 CE, Apuleius, Apologia sive pro se de magia 1.3:
      Sustineō enim nōn modo meam, vērum etiam philosophiae dēfēnsiōnem, cuia magnitūdō vel minimam reprehēnsiōnem prō maximō crīmine aspernātur.
      I am undertaking not just a defence of myself, but one of Philosophy too, whose greatness rejects even the smallest blame as if it were the greatest crime.
Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

singular plural
masculine feminine neuter masculine feminine neuter
nominative cuius cuia cuium cuiī cuiae cuia
genitive cuiī cuiae cuiī cuiōrum cuiārum cuiōrum
dative cuiō cuiae cuiō cuiīs
accusative cuium cuiam cuium cuiōs cuiās cuia
ablative cuiō cuiā cuiō cuiīs
vocative cuie cuia cuium cuiī cuiae cuia
Descendants

References

  1. ^ Bakkum, Gabriël C.L.M. (2009), The Latin dialect of the Ager Faliscus: 150 years of scholarship‎[1], Amsterdam University Press, →ISBN, pages 133-134
  2. ^ Weiss, Michael L. (2009), Outline of the Historical and Comparative Grammar of Latin, Ann Arbor: Beech Stave Press, →ISBN, page 160
  3. ^ Sihler, Andrew L. (1995), New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, § 194, 375.1

Further reading

  • “cujus (1)”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “cujus (2)”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “cuius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “cujus”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
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