quizais
Galician
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Old Galician-Portuguese quiçay, quiça, quiçais. Ultimately probably from the Latin expression qui sapit (“who knows”). Compare Portuguese quiçá, Spanish quizá, Italian chissà, Catalan quissà and French qui sait.
Pronunciation
[edit]Adverb
[edit]quizais
- perhaps, maybe
- 1370, Ramón Lorenzo, editor, Crónica troiana, A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 328:
- quiçays fora mellor estar aló en paz
- maybe it would be better to be there in peace
- 1671, Gabriel Feixoo de Araúxo, Contenda dos labradores de Caldelas:
- cosais co'esta tunda aqueibaran, enon seran ousados de vir por lan, è volber trasquilados
- perhaps with this beating they will settle down, and they will not dare to come for wool and return shorn [to come for more than they bargained for]
References
[edit]- Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “quiçais”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Xavier Varela Barreiro, Xavier Gómez Guinovart (2006–2018) “quiç”, in Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: ILG
- Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “quizais”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “quizais”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
- Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “quizais”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN