quantus

From Proto-Italic *kʷāntos, from either:^[1]

• A thematization of Proto-Indo-European *kʷéh₂onts (“how much, how many”), from *kʷéh₂ (neuter plural of *kʷos) + *-onts (Caland adjectival suffix).
• A -tos derivative of Proto-Italic *kʷām (whence quam), accusative of *kʷoi.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷan.tʊs]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷan̪.t̪us]

quantus (feminine quanta, neuter quantum); first/second-declension adjective

1. how much, how many
   • c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Seneca the Younger, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium 1.2.6:

     Quid enim refert quantum illī in arcā, quantum in horreīs iaceat, quantum pāscat aut feneret, sī aliēnō imminet, sī nōn acquīsīta sed acquīrenda computat?

     For what does it matter how much [money] lies in his strongbox, how much [grain] in his granaries, how many [livestock] he pastures or puts out at interest, if he sets his sights on what belongs to others, if he reckons not what he has acquired but what there is to acquire?

2. how big or how great
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.48-49:

     “[...] Teucrum comitantibus armīs / Pūnica sē quantīs attollet glōria rēbus!”

     “With the arms of Troy accompanying our own, Punic renown will arise through such great deeds!”

3. as much, great, or far as, etc., expressing a relative proportion or related quantity
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 4.445–446:

     [...] ipsa haeret scopulīs et, quantum vertice ad aurās / aetheriās, tantum rādīce in Tartara tendit.

     [The wind and the oak tree:] the [tree] itself holds tight to bedrock and, as high as its peak [towers] to heavenly air, to that extent its roots stretch [down] to Tartarus.

• Being an adjective in its most basic function, quantus was then used substantively as quantum (with genitive) to mean "as much of...as"; as quantī (pretiī) to mean "how high (a price)", "as high (a price) as", "how dear", "as dear as"; adverbially as quantum to mean "as much as" (cf. quam); as quantō to mean "by how much", "by as much as". For all these tantus has its coordinate functions.

First/second-declension adjective.

• tantus

• quantitās
• quantopere
• quantulus
• quantusvīs

• “quantus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “quantus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "quantus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• quantus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) as far as I can guess: quantum ego coniectura assequor, auguror
    
  • (ambiguous) as far as I know: quantum scio
    
  • (ambiguous) I am not dissatisfied with my progress: non me paenitet, quantum profecerim
    
  • (ambiguous) to take only enough food to support life: tantum cibi et potionis adhibere quantum satis est
    
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “quantity”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.