qua

See also: QUA, quá, quà, quả, quạ, and qu'à

English

Etymology 1

From Latin quā (“in the capacity of”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwɑː/

  Rhymes: -ɑː

  Audio (US):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /kweɪ/

  Rhymes: -eɪ

  Audio (US):

  (file)

Preposition

qua

1. (chiefly philosophy) as; in the capacity of; acting as
   • 1920, T. S. Eliot, “Hamlet and His Problems”, in The Sacred Wood:

     Qua work of art, the work of art cannot be interpreted; there is nothing to interpret; we can only criticize it according to standards, in comparison to other works of art; […]

   • 1954: Gilbert Ryle, Dilemmas: The Tarner Lectures, 1953, dilemma vii: Perception, page 99 (The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press)

     As anatomy, physiology and, later, psychology have developed into more or less well-organized sciences, they have necessarily and rightly come to incorporate the study of, among other things, the structures, mechanisms, and functionings of animal and human bodies qua percipient.

   • 1962: Norman Malcolm; Dreaming; chapter nine: “Judgments in Sleep”, page 39^{1}; chapter twelve: “The Concept of Dreaming”, page 68^{2} (1977 paperback reprint; Routledge & Kegan Paul; ISBN 0‒7100‒3836‒4 (c), 0‒7100‒8434‒X (p))

     ^{1} For sleep qua sleep has no experiential content: it cannot turn out, as remarked before, that a man was not asleep because he was not having some experience or other.

     ^{2} I am denying that a dream qua dream is a seeming, appearance or ‘semblance of reality’.

   • 2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin, published 2004, page 458:

     It was qua poet that Byron resurrected the exploded and discarded immortal Christian soul by bodying it forth through the notion of soul conceived as poetic imagination.

   • 2005: Ulfelder, Jay.Collective Action and the Breakdown of Authoritarian Regimes. International Political Science Review, 26(3), p318. Retrieved 1615 240810 from http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/30039035.pdf?acceptTC=true.

     "In essence, military regimes are autocracies in which the military qua organization performs many of the functions performed by the ruling party in single-party regimes."

   • 2009: Ken Levy, Killing, Letting Die, and the Case for Mildly Punishing Bad Samaritanism, Georgia Law Review, p. 24.

     Blame qua attitude is the feeling or belief that an individual has committed a wrongdoing, usually a wrongful action and/or harm, and can be reasonably expected not to have committed this wrongdoing. Blame qua practice is the public expression of this attitude – usually by means of censure (written or verbal criticism) or punishment. Generally, the morally worse the wrongdoing, the more severe the censure/punishment.

   • 2022 March 29, Dwight Garner, “In Jennifer Egan’s New Novel, Our Memories Are Available for All to See”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     Sometimes, though, you pick up a novel and it makes your skin prickle — not necessarily because it’s a great novel qua novel, which you can’t know until the end, but because of the velocity of its microperceptions.

Translations

in the capacity of

Danish: qua (da), i egenskab af Dutch: qua, als zodanig, wat betreft Faroese: sum, eins og French: en tant que (fr) Greek: ως (el) (os) Polish: jako (pl) Swedish: i egenskap av

Etymology 2

Imitative.

Interjection

qua

1. The cawing sound of a crow.
   • 1909, The Country Gentleman, volume 74, page 266:

     Crows have a language of their own in a wild state that any observant person can learn. […] Then he would straighten his head back and, with the most comical bowing and wagging, say: "Qua qua qua, qua qua qua" for perhaps a minute.

   • 2012, Jaman Tree, I Crow River:

     Qua... qua... qua... out of the blue I hear the crows cawing with great fanfare as they announce to the world at large that they are here by my side and intend to probe into my being.

Anagrams

• QAU, UAQ

Classical Nahuatl

Verb

qua

1. Alternative spelling of cua

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kvaː/, [kʰvæːˀ]
• Rhymes: -aː

Conjunction

qua

1. as, qua (in the capacity of)
2. (as a preposition) by virtue of (because of)

Dutch

Etymology

From Latin quā (“in the capacity of, by which, as far as”).

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aː

• Audio:

  (file)

Preposition

qua

1. regarding, concerning, in terms of

   Qua gezondheid ben ik helemaal in orde.

   In terms of health, I'm perfectly fine.

Synonyms

• wat ... betreft

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin quā.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kvaː/

• Audio:

  (file)

Preposition

qua [with dative or (alternatively when governing a noun accompanied by an adjective or article, rarely otherwise) genitive]

1. (formal) by

   Synonyms: durch, mittels, kraft

   qua Gesetz ― by law

   • 2018, Kevin Rick, Verbraucherpolitik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Nomos Verlag, →ISBN, page 84:

     Die Regierung von Individuen oder Kollektiven, sei es qua Verordnung oder qua Appell, ist deshalb stets an das „Regieren des Selbst“ gekoppelt, an durch das Subjekt aktiv anzueignende Selbsttechniken bzw. Technologien des Selbst.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

Sometimes used with the genitive:

qua Amtes ― ex officio (literally, “by office”)

Further reading

• “qua” in Duden online
• “qua” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

Hokkien

Alternative forms

• koaⁿ

Etymology

The suffix has been used since around the 17th and 18th century. Since "hong" (行) merchants were technically officials of the lowest (9th) rank, the suffix qua was added to their names in honour of their positions in the Qing government.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [kuã˥˥]

Suffix

qua

1. Irregular romanization of of 官 (“official”)

Usage notes

• Formerly added to names of hong merchants (i.e. "Powqua," "Chinqua").

Ido

Etymology

Borrowed from French qui, que, Italian che, Spanish que, ultimately from Latin quī / quid.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kwa/

Pronoun

qua (plural qui)

1. (relative pronoun) which

   Esis tre jentila homo qua helpis ni. ― It was a nice man who helped us.

2. (interrogative pronoun) who

   Qua esas ita kerlo? ― Who is that guy? (direct question)

   Me ne konocas qua ita esas. ― I don't know who that is. (indirect question)

Determiner

qua

1. (interrogative determiner) what

   Qua kamizo vu portos? ― What shirt are you going to wear?

Derived terms

• quo (“what (thing)”)
• qui (“who (plural)”)
• pro quo (“why”)

See also

• ube (“where”)
• kande (“when”)
• quala (“what kind of”)
  • quale (“how”)
• quanta (“how much”)
  • quanto (“quantity”)

Italian

Alternative forms

• quà (misspelling)

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *eccum hāc. Related to Portuguese cá, Spanish acá, French çà.

The original geminated -cc-, though lost in the standard language, is still found in most regional Italian varieties.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkwa/^*

  • Audio:

    (file)

• (regional) IPA^(key): ^*/ˈkwa/^*
• Rhymes: -a

Adverb

qua

1. here

   Synonym: qui

Usage notes

• For differences between qua and qui, see notes at qui.

Derived terms

• quassù
• quaggiù

See also

• là, lì

Further reading

• qua in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
• qua² in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Latin

Etymology 1

Adverb declined from quī. Diachronically, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷéh₂; compare Ancient Greek πῇ (pêi), πῆ (pê, “which way, how”) and Latin quam.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kʷa/, [kʷä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kwa/, [kwäː]

Adverb

quā (not comparable)

1. On which side, at or in which place, in what direction, where, by what way (qua...ea...)
2. as; in the capacity or character of
3. In so far as

   ens qua ens ― being as being

4. In what way, how, by what method; to what degree or extent
   1. (indefinite, after sī, nisi, num, nē) anyway, anyhow, in any way
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 1.17–18:

     hoc rēgnum dea gentibus esse –
     sī quā fāta sinant – iam tum tenditque fovetque.

     The goddess already aims and fondly hopes that this [city] – if in any way the fates allow it – [will] be the seat of ruling power over [all] nations.
     (In other words, long before the founding of Rome the goddess Juno wanted Carthage to become the imperial city. See: Juno (mythology); Carthage.)

Related terms

type	demonstrative			anaphoric	identity	interrogative/ relative	indefinite					negative	other
	proximal	medial	distal				relative	indefinite	free choice	universal	negative polarity
basic	hic	iste, istic	ille, illic	is	ipse, īdem	quis/quī	quisquis, quīcumque	quis, quī, quīdam, aliquis, aliquī, quispiam	quīvis, quīlibet	quisque	quisquam, ūllus, °aliquisquam	nēmō, nihil, nūllus	alius
dual						uter	utercumque	alteruter	utervīs, uterlibet	uterque		neuter	alter
place	hīc	istīc	illīc	ibī̆	ibī̆dem	ubī̆	ubiubi, ubī̆cumque	alicubī, uspiam	ubivīs, ubilibet	ubīque	usquam	nusquam, nūllibī	alibī, aliās
source	hinc	istinc	illinc	inde	indidem	unde	undecumque, undeunde	alicunde	°undelibet	undique			aliunde
destination	hūc, °hōrsum	istūc, °istōrsum	illūc, °illōrsum	eō	eōdem	quō, quōrsum	quōquō, quōcumque	aliquō, quōpiam, °aliquōvorsum	quōvīs, quōlibet		quōquam	nusquam, nūllōrsum	aliō, aliōrsum
method, means, path, place	hāc	istāc	illāc	eā	eādem	quā	quāquā, quācumque	aliquā	quāvīs, quālibet	quāque		nēquāquam, haudquāquam	aliā
manner	hōc modō	istō modō	illō modō	ita, sīc, eō modō	item, itidem	ut, quī, quō modō, quōmodo, quemadmodum	utut, utcumque, quōmodocumque	quī, quōdam modō, aliquō modō	quōmodolibet	utique	ūllō modō	nūllō modō	aliter, aliōquī, alterō/aliō modō
time	num, nunc		ōlim	tum, tunc	simul	quandō, ‡cum	cumque, quandōcumque, quandōque	quondam, aliquandō	quandōlibet	quandōque	umquam	numquam	aliās
quantity				tam	†tamen, †tandem	quam	†quamquam	aliquam	quamvīs, quamlibet
size				tantus	tantusdem	quantus	quantuscumque	aliquantus	quantusvīs, quantuslibet
quality				tālis		quālis	quālis, quāliscumque	aliquālis	quālislibet
number				tot	totidem	quot	quotquot, quotcumque	aliquot	quotlibet
order				totus		quotus	quotuscumque	aliquotus	quotuslibet
repetition				totiēns		quotiēns	quotiēnscumque	aliquotiēns	quotiēnslibet
multiplication				totuplex		quotuplex
† Turned conjunction with original meaning somewhat dissimulated ° Rare ‡only used as a conjunction, not as an interrogative

Latin correlatives ^(edit)

Etymology 2

Inflection of quī (“who, which”).

Pronunciation

• quā: (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kʷaː/, [kʷäː]
• qua: (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /kʷa/, [kʷä]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /kwa/, [kwäː]

Pronoun

quā

1. ablative feminine singular of quī

Pronoun

qua

1. inflection of quī:
   1. nominative feminine singular
   2. nominative/accusative neuter plural

Usage notes

• qua is commonly used for quae in the above forms of the indefinite variant of the pronoun quī.

Etymology 3

Inflection of quis (“anyone, something, anyone, anything”).

Pronoun

quā

1. ablative feminine singular of quis

References

• “qua”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “qua”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• qua in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) how old are you: qua aetate es?
    
  • (ambiguous) moral science; ethics: philosophia, in qua de bonis rebus et malis, deque hominum vita et moribus disputatur
    
  • (ambiguous) the connection of thought: ratio, qua sententiae inter se excipiunt.
    
  • (ambiguous) to let those present fix any subject they like for discussion: ponere iubere, qua de re quis audire velit (Fin. 2. 1. 1)
    
  • (ambiguous) the question at issue: res, de qua nunc quaerimus, quaeritur
    
• Allen, Joseph Henry, Greenough, James B. (1903) Allen and Greenough's New Latin grammar for schools and colleges: founded on comparative grammar, Boston: Ginn and Company, § 149

Middle English

Pronoun

qua

1. (Northern) Alternative form of who (“who”, nominative)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin quā.

Preposition

qua

1. qua; as, in capacity of

References

• “qua” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “qua” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From Latin quā.

Preposition

qua

1. qua; as, in capacity of

Etymology 2

From Old Norse hvat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat.

Pronoun

qua

1. obsolete spelling of kva.
   • 1695, Norske Vers til Kronprintsens Bilager, volume 21, quoted in Syn og Segn, page 272:

     Qua skall eg mejra seja[?]

     What more shall I say[?]

References

• “qua” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Romansch

Adverb

qua

1. here

Tày

Pronunciation

• (Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA^(key): [kwaː˧˧]
• (Trùng Khánh) IPA^(key): [kwaː˦˥]

Etymology 1

Noun

qua (瓜)

1. lemon
2. squash

   𫇥瓜曾𫇥荳

   Bioóc qua tằng bioóc thúa

   squash flowers and pea flowers

Derived terms

• qua bươn slí
• qua khao
• qua nu

 

Etymology 2

Noun

qua

1. pillar

   slâu qua ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Derived terms

• qua tồng

 

References

• Hoàng Văn Ma, Lục Văn Pảo, Hoàng Chí (2006) Từ điển Tày-Nùng-Việt [Tay-Nung-Vietnamese dictionary] (in Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Từ điển Bách khoa Hà Nội
• Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary]‎ (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên
• Lục Văn Pảo, Hoàng Tuấn Nam (2003) Hoàng Triều Ân, editor, Từ điển chữ Nôm Tày [A Dictionary of (chữ) Nôm Tày]‎ (in Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Khoa học Xã hội

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kwaː˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kwaː˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [waː˧˧]

• Audio (Hà Nội):

  (file)

• Audio (Saigon):

  (file)

Etymology 1

Sino-Vietnamese word from 過 (“pass”). Doublet of quá.

Preposition

qua

1. through, across (from one side to the other)

   ô-tô chạy qua cầu ― the car crosses the bridge

   xe vượt qua đèo ― the car crosses the mountain pass

   nhìn qua cửa sổ ― to look through the window

   nhảy qua mương ― to hop across the ditch

   lật qua trang khác ― to flip to another page

2. by way of
3. by means of, by, over, using

   nói chuyện qua điện thoại ― to converse over the telephone

   học tập qua kinh nghiệm ― to learn by experience

   hiểu biết qua thực tế ― to understand through reality

Adjective

qua

1. last (most recent)

   Đêm qua chớp bể mưa nguồn, hỏi người quân tử có buồn hay không?

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   (folk poetry)

2. ago (before now)
   • 1968, Ho Chi Minh, Thơ chúc Tết Mậu Thân:

     Xuân này hơn hẳn mấy xuân qua.

     This year is better than many years past.

     (literally, “This year's spring is better than the last few.”)

Synonyms

• (last): vừa rồi
• (past): trước

Derived terms

Derived terms

• hôm qua

 

Verb

qua • (戈)

1. (intransitive) to have transpire, to take place

   tai qua nạn khỏi ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   nhắc lại việc đã qua ― to recall events that have transpired

2. (intransitive) to go over to; to spend time at

   Ông ấy qua Pháp dự một hội nghị.

   He went over to France for a conference.

3. (transitive) to survive

   Bà cụ khó qua được đêm nay.

   The old woman struggles to survive tonight.

4. (transitive) to escape, to elude

   Mọi việc trong cơ quan không qua được sự theo dõi của ông ta.

   Nothing in the agency can escape his watchful eye.

5. (transitive) to cross (to move relatively); to traverse

   Qua cầu dừng bước trông cầu, cầu bao nhiêu nhịp em sầu bấy nhiêu.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   (folk poetry)

6. (transitive) to go to the front of

   Qua đình nghé nón trông đình, đình bao nhiêu ngói thương mình bấy nhiêu.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   (folk poetry)

7. (transitive) to overcome

   khôn chẳng qua lẽ, khỏe chẳng qua lời ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

8. (intransitive) to drift past; to elapse

Synonyms

• (to cross): đi qua
• (to drift past): trôi qua

Derived terms

Derived terms

• băng qua
• đi qua
• khôn chẳng qua lẽ, khỏe chẳng qua lời
• tai qua nạn khỏi

 

Adverb

qua

1. across (from one side to the other), through

   nhìn qua ― to look past

   nhảy qua ― to hop across

2. in passing

   dặn qua mấy lời ― to give a few words of advice in passing

3. cursorily, superficially

   biết qua thế thôi ― to know a thing or two about it

   đọc qua vài trang ― to skim over a few pages

4. completely
   • 1820, Nguyễn Du, Truyện Kiều [The Tale of Kieu]:

     Trải qua một cuộc bể dâu / Những điều trông thấy mà đau đớn lòng.

     Through the whirligig of time / There are events which wrench one’s heart

Etymology 2

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 我 (SV: ngã); borrowed from a Sinitic variety with denasalization.

Pronoun

qua

1. (archaic, men's speech or Southern Vietnam) I; me

   Hôm qua qua bảo qua qua mà qua không qua. Hôm nay qua không bảo qua qua mà qua lại qua.

   Yesterday ah said ah'd cuhm over but ah ain't cuhm. Today ah ain't say ah'd cuhm over but ah came.

   Qua đã nói với bậu, nhưng bậu chẳng nghe.

   Ah told ya but ya wouldn’t listen.

Synonyms

• (I): ta, tôi

Etymology 3

Romanization

qua

1. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 戈
2. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 冎
3. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 瘑
4. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 蜗
5. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 薖
6. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 檛
7. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 挝
8. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 涡
9. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 騧
10. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 渦
11. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 堝
12. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 瘸
13. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 簻
14. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 咼
15. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 撾
16. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 濄
17. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 过
18. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 胍
19. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 過
20. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 剐
21. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 㧓
22. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 呙
23. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 埚
24. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 瓜
25. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 㳡
26. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 叧
27. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 剮
28. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 蝸
29. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 緺
30. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 髽
31. Sino-Vietnamese reading of 找

References

• "qua" in Hồ Ngọc Đức, Free Vietnamese Dictionary Project (details)
• Lê Sơn Thanh, "Nom-Viet.dat", WinVNKey (details)
• An Chi (17 March 2019). "Lắt léo chữ nghĩa: Nguồn gốc của đại từ QUA". Thanh Niên.