quelcom

Catalan

FWOTD – 21 January 2013

Etymology

Inherited from Old Catalan queacom, queucom, calcom, caucom, from Latin quale-cumque or quiddam-cumque, although Spitzer suggests quale-quomodo. Compare Occitan calacom, quezacom, queacom.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [kəlˈko̞m]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Central) [kəlˈkɔm]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [kelˈkɔm]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

Pronoun

quelcom

1. (formal) something

   Synonyms: alguna cosa, res, qualque cosa, (proscribed) algo

   • 1919, Claudi Planas i Font, En Pere i altres contes:

     ...tenia quelcom de brutal l'espectacle d'aquell home decrèpit...

     ...there was something brutal about the spectacle of that decrepit man...

2. (formal, in questions) anything

Usage notes

• In informal speech alguna cosa, res or the nonstandard Castilianism algo are more common.

Adverb

quelcom

1. (literary) a bit, somewhat, rather

Further reading

• “quelcom”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “quelcom”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “quelcom” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “quelcom”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)