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The corpus record — Latin

quippe

quippe · adv

surely

Generated live from the audited Latin corpus — every figure on this page is a database query, not prose from memory.

Where it lives

Densest 12 of 152 attested works shown, by occurrences per 10,000 attested tokens.

What it meant

quippe — Lewis & Short

quippe, adv. and

I conj. [quī-pe], a particle of corroboration, similar to nempe (from nam-pe), surely, certainly, to be sure, by all means, indeed, in fact.
1 Recte igitur diceres te restituisse? Quippe: quid enim facilius est quam probari iis, qui? etc., Cic. Caecin. 19, 55: leve nomen habet utraque res: quippe; leve enim est hoc totum, risum movere, id. de Or. 2, 54, 219: a te quidem apte (dictum est); quippe; habes enim a rhetoribus, etc., id. Fin. 4, 3, 7.—Ironically, certainly, indeed, forsooth: quippe, vetor fatis, I, forsooth, am forbidden by the fates! Verg. A. 1, 39: movet me quippe lumen curiae, Cic. Mil. 12, 33.—
2 Introducing an explanation, for, for in fact: quippe benignus erat, Hor. S. 1, 2, 4: quippe color nivis est, Ov. M. 2, 852; 14, 91; 11, 495: quippe homo jam grandior Se continebat ruri, Ter. Phorm. 2, 3, 15: quidam contra miseriti, periturae quippe, Phaedr. 3, 2, 5.—So parenthet.: non illi contempsere, quippe toties fusi fugatique ... se et vos novere, Liv. 3, 67; Curt. 3, 4, 8 sq.
3 Hence, introducing a fact given as a reason or cause, = nam, enim, for, because, inasmuch as (not in Cic. or Cæs.): quippe si hercle rescivere inimici consilium tuom, etc., Plaut. Mil. 3, 1, 9; Ter. Heaut. 2, 4, 9: intellego aequos bonosque mihi favere, quippe beneficia mea rei publicae procedunt, Sall. J. 85, 5: duo exercitus periculi magis praesentis quam curae expertes, quippe imperium agebatur in tam paucorum virtute positum, Liv. 1, 25, 2; cf. Sall. C. 19; Liv. 5, 24; 6, 6.—
4 In connection with the causal particles, enim, etenim, quia, etc., for indeed, since in fact, inasmuch as, Lucr. 6, 617: quippe etenim, id. 1, 104: insanabilis non est credendus, quippe quoniam in multis sponte desiit, Plin. 26, 10, 64, § 100: quippe quando mihi nihil credis, Plaut. Capt. 4, 2, 106.—Esp. freq.: quippe cum, Cic. Att. 10, 3, 1; cf.: neque Cimoni fuit turpe, sororem habere in matrimonio, quippe cum cives ejus eodem uterentur instituto, Nep. praef. § 4; Liv. 26, 39, 9: quippe ubi dimidiae partis pars semper habebit Dimidiam partem, Lucr. 1, 617; 990.—Also absol., Verg. A. 1, 661. —
5 In connection with the relative pronouns, qui, quae, quod, prop., as one in fact who, which, or that, i. e. since or inasmuch as I, thou, he, it, etc.
(a) With indic.: dicat, argenti minas se habere quinquaginta: quippe ego qui nudiustertius meis manibus dinumeravi, since or seeing that I paid, Plaut. Ep. 3, 2, 30: tametsi pro imperio vobis quod dictum foret, Scibat facturos; quippe qui intellexerat, Vereri vos se et metuere, since he knew that you revered, etc., id. Am. prol. 22: aperite januam hanc Orci: nam equidem haud aliter esse duco: quippe quo nemo advenit, nisi quem spes reliquere omnes, since no one comes here, id. Bacch. 3, 1, 2; Ter. Heaut. 3, 2, 27: multa de meā sententiā questus est Caesar, quippe quod etiam Ravennae Crassum ante vidisset, Cic. Fam. 1, 9, 9: plurimum terroris Romam celeritas hostium tulit, quippe quibus aegre ad undecimum lapidem occursum est, and in fact they met them, Liv. 5, 37. —
(b) With subj. (class.): convivia cum patre non inibat: quippe qui ne in oppidum quidem, nisi perraro, veniret, Cic. Rosc. Am. 18, 52: nihil attinet eam ex lege considerare, quippe quae in lege scripta non sit, id. Inv. 2, 45, 131: cum a tyranno crudeliter violatus esset, quippe quem venundari jussisset: tamen, Nep. Dion, 2, 3.—
6 In connection with etiam and et, since indeed, for even (poet.): quippe etiam festis quaedam exercere diebus, Fas et jura sinunt, Verg. G. 1, 268: quippe et Collinas ad fossam moverit herbas, Stantia currenti diluerentur aquā, Prop. 4 (5), 5, 11.
7 With ut, so that (post-class.), Just. 4, 3, 2.

In the wild

6 of 1,300 attestations shown.

Where it came from

  • Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine Treated in Ernout-Meillet, Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine s.v. quippe (scan p. 581; entry #9535).

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Latin text and lemmatization derived from the Perseus Digital Library (canonical-latinLit), CC BY-SA 4.0. Lewis & Short (public domain) via Perseus. This derived data is shared under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 license.