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Webster 1913 Edition


Qua

Qua

,
c
onj.
[L., abl. of
qui
who.]
In so far as; in the capacity or character of; as.
It is with Shelley’s biographers
qua
biographers that we have to deal.
London Spectator.

Definition 2024


qua

qua

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

English

Adverb

qua (not comparable)

  1. As [a/an]; in the capacity of.
    • 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, page 458 (Penguin, 2004)
      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.ezproxy1.library.usyd.edu.au/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.

Translations

Preposition

qua

  1. in the capacity of

Anagrams


Classical Nahuatl

Verb

qua

  1. Alternative spelling of cua

Danish

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kvaː/, [kʰvæːˀ]

Conjunction

qua

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

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -aː

Adverb

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

Ido

Etymology

Borrowing 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


Italian

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *(ec)cu hac, from Latin eccum + hac.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /kwa/
  • Rhymes: -a

Adverb

qua

  1. here (relatively close to the speaker)

See also


Latin

Etymology 1

Adverb declined from quī.

Pronunciation

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

Etymology 2

Inflection of quī (who, which).

Pronoun

quā

  1. ablative feminine singular of quī

Etymology 3

Inflection of quis (who?, what?).

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
  • Félix Gaffiot (1934), “qua”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
  • Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (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

Min Nan

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [kuã˥˥]

Etymology

The suffix has been used since around the 17th and 18th century. It is most likely an early attempt at Romanizing the Min Nan for (POJ: koaⁿ) official. Since "hong" () 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.

Suffix

qua (poj koaⁿ, traditional and simplified )

  1. official

Usage notes

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

See also


Romansch

Adverb

qua

  1. here

Vietnamese

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from (“pass”)

Pronunciation

Preposition

qua

  1. through, across, by

Adjective

qua

  1. last

Verb

qua

  1. (intransitive) To be gone.
  2. (intransitive) To cross.

Derived terms

  • băng qua
  • đi qua