On the History of Words: some etymological and diachronic remarks on degree words
On the History of Words: some etymological and diachronic remarks on degree words

Summary/Abstract: In this article, we bring into discussion some etymological and diachronic facts about the degree words cât/atât in Romanian (cât/câţi ‘how-much/how-many’ and atât/atâţi ‘that/so-much/ that/so-many’), about their origin and use. We analyse their distribution in correlative constructions and relative clauses with an amount interpretation, starting with Old Romanian texts. These facts are intended to shed light on the distribution of cât and atât, especially in constructions in which cât is used with its correlate atât. These correlations originate in Latin comparative/correlative constructions with quantus ... tantus/tantus ... quantus. Etimologically, cât was claimed to have derived from the Latin word quantus? ('cât de mare? ”how of big”), a corelative of tantus (atât ”that much; so much”), which replaced quotus? (cât? ”how much?”). The other Romance languages kept the unique Latin etimology, so we have in Italian and in Portugese quanto/tanto and in Spanish cuanto/(a)tanto. As mentioned above, in Latin, the pronoun quantus was mainly used in correlative (comparative) constructions and the same distribution can be observed in older Romanian texts (16th-17th century) or in the 18th and 19th century writings, since cât was mainly used in correlative constructions that typically consist of a free relative introduced by cât and the main clause that contains the correlate, which varies from iară (‘and’), aşa (‘so much’, ‘that much’) and cât (‘how much’), to the more common atât (‘that much’).

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