Etymology

quart

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Today it means: A unit of liquid capacity equal to two pints; one-fourth (quarter) of a gallon. Equivalent to 1.136 liters in the UK and 0.946 liter (liquid quart) or 1.101 liters (dry quart) in the U.S. Full definition →

Middle English quart ← Old French quarte ← Latin quartus
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quart · noun1

  1. Latin · derived fromquartus“one-fourth”
  2. Old French · derived fromquarte
  3. Middle English · inherited fromquart
  4. English todayquart

From Middle English quart, quarte, from Old French quarte, carte, from Latin quartus (“one-fourth”). Cognate with Spanish cuarto (“quarter; room, quarters”).

quart · adjective, noun2

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gʷerh₂-“heavy”
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*kwerruz“calm, satisfied, pacified”
  3. Old Norse · derived fromkyrr
  4. Old Norse · derived fromkyrt
  5. Middle English · inherited fromquarte
  6. English todayquart

From Middle English quarte, querte, from Old Norse kyrt, *kvirt, neuter of Old Norse kyrr, kvirr (“quiet, still, peaceful”), from Proto-Germanic *kwerruz (“calm, satisfied, pacified”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₂- (“heavy”). Cognate with Scots quert, quart (“alive, in good health, sound”), Scots querty (“vivacious, active, in good spirits”), Danish kvær (“quiet”), Norwegian Nynorsk kvar, kvær, kverr (“still, quiet”), Icelandic kyrr (“still, calm, unmoving”).

quart · adjective, adverb, verb3

Dialectal alteration of thwart.

Quart · proper noun4

  1. French · borrowed fromQuart
  2. English todayQuart

Quart · proper noun5

From quārtum (“fourth”), that is town on the fourth Roman mile from the city of Girona, v.DCVB

Words from the same roots

Latinquartus all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.