Quoth Who?

[steepholm]

Someone on the Sidney-Spenser list threw out a challenge the other day, which no one so far has taken up. Maybe there's a bold younker here, ready to don the bright helm of grammatical truth?

The question is: is there any word in the English language, other than "quoth", which always appears before its subject? You always say "Quoth Aristotle" not "Aristotle quoth". Is this unique? I feel it can't be, but have been racking my brains to find another instance.

Incidentally, it turns out that "quoth" is not, as I always thought, related in some way to "quote", even though these days it invariably introduces a quotation. It's an unimpeachably Germanic word, echt deutsch. The verb from which it derives (only the first and third person singular survive) is "queath", which we still hear echoes of in the verb "bequeath" - suggesting that wills were originally spoken, as of course in pre-literate societies they must have been.

Comments

[lamentables]

I initially read that as the Spidey-Senses list. I'm a tad disappointed now.

[steepholm]

Think of Spenser as the Stan Lee of his day. It's not that far off the mark!

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

So the past tense of "bequeath" ought to be "bequoth" then! Excellent.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That's a very pleasing reflection.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Then there's Quoth the raven..............

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Funny name for a raven...

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I've always thought so. :o)

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

You are wanting a verb, yes? Because I can come up with any number of prepositions!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Alas, this is one of those occasions when only a verb will do.

Fascinating

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

Notice also the phrase "queath word" as will and testament. I love the phrase "quick and queathing" as in this attestation:

?a1475 Ludus Coventriae 335 To all my bretheryn I xal go telle how þat ȝe be man levynge, quyk and qwethynge, of flesch and ffelle.

I once wrote about quotative inversion,

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Notice also the phrase "queath word" as will and testament. I love the phrase "quick and queathing" as in this attestation:
<i><blockquote>?a1475 Ludus Coventriae 335 To all my bretheryn I xal go telle how þat ȝe be man levynge, quyk and qwethynge, of flesch and ffelle.</blockquote></i>
I once wrote about quotative inversion, <a href="http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1848>as the linguists call it</a>. In largely pre-literate times, the word tagging a passage as quoted, as the words of others, acted as a marker of quotation, and therefore was <i>always</i> contiguous with the quoted words, whether introducing, medial, or following. Only as punctuation became more prominent as an indicator of quotation, with the rise of literacy, did tagging verbs move away from compulsory contiguity. "'But not the praise,' Phoebus replied," e.g. is one of the first examples of such non-contiguity. (In inflected languages grammatical form can do the work of separating out a quoted passage.) But I never thought to look up <i>quoth</i>, quotha.

"Quote" otoh, means "count" (as in "quote a price") which is also really interesting, for different reasons.

Re: Fascinating

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting - although, ironically, your own tagging seems to have gone awry in a very modern way! I'm really surprised that the continguity rule lasted as late as Milton, but of course I can't suggest any counterexamples.

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

"spake"?

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about "said", which like "spake" can precede the subject, but both words can also follow the subject in the normal word order. For example: And Jesus spake unto them.

[malkhos.livejournal.com]

The use of the word quoth is always meant to have an archaizing effect, and that is bolstered by the backwards French word order. This is one of the features of the KJV that is said to already be archaizing at the time it was written. I wonder if you look at older examples, when the word quoth was still in common usage, if you find the normal word order? Unfortunately I don;t have access tot he OED.

If you do find other examples--and like you I feel that I can almost think of some--I bet it will be for the same reason. Victorian poetry seems a good place to look.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

There may be older examples, but the Sidney-Spenser list is full of sixteenth-century specialists and none of them has offered any yet.

Taking what you say in combination with nightspore's comment above, it's perhaps significant that "quoth" begins to look archaic at around the same time the contiguity rule he describes breaks down. All the same, while that would explain the absence of "he quoth" after direct speech, it doesn't explain why it never occurs before it.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Chaucer uses 'Quod' if my memory serves.

Still thinking and I still can't bring any others to mind.

I'll perhaps go and investigate my books of Anglo Saxon verse and the mystery plays later on!

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

In truth, it almost seems a miscategorization to call "quoth" a verb. It's invariant in form: you can't use it in any tense except the simple past (we don't still have present-tense "queth"; there's no past-perfect "Had quoth my father, 'Beware strangers'"; and so on). And in spite of Merriam-Webster's simple definition of "said" (along with the usage note "archaic" and the grammatical note "used chiefly in the first and third persons with a postpositive subject"), its object has to be a quotation: you can't get away with "Quoth William those words to me" or "Quoth Anne that she agreed".

So it looks like a verb, but it might be more accurate to call it something like a "speech marker", not unlike "like" (which Merriam-Webster, on this usage, calls a conjunction "used interjectionally"), which also can't be used with indirect speech.

But as far as it goes: no, it appears "quoth" is the only such verb. Again relying on my Dictionary of Choice, "postpositive" is used in a number of definitions, but they're almost entirely adjectives such as "redux" and "aplenty".

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thank you, that's certainly very helpful, especially as regards the data on postpositivity from Merriam-Webster.

I'm not enough of a linguist to know whether it should be called a verb or not, or whether its restricted forms and roles disqualify it from that title. Certainly "went", which also appears only in the first and third person simple past, is considered a verb, but I suppose that's because it's been combined with "go" to create a kind of linguistic chimera.

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I'm not enough of a linguist to know...

Well, truth be told, while I am a linguist, I'm speaking far outside my comfort zone on this one. There's work done on quotative inversion (as Nightspore, above, noted that linguists call it), but insofar as quotative inversion seems to me to be generally restricted to written language and not spoken language, I kind of always found it a little bit silly. (I'm not sure that, in spoken language, anyone ever puts the spoken words ahead of the subject/verb, regardless of whether it's "...said John" or "...John said". On the other hand, spoken language with "quoth he" sounds fine to me, as long as you're going for an archaic sound. Shakespeare, the only real searchable text I have on hand, uses "quoth [subject]" not infrequently in dialogue; "said [subject]" is rarer, and on a not-that-thorough search, it mostly seems to be used in Much Ado About Nothing. Maybe Shakespeare was feeling rushed that day?)

So I've probably gone too far out on a limb in denying it verb status; I'm certainly not doing so from any real position of authority or study.

Incidentally, does the subject of "quoth" have to be animate? "Said" is fine in the sentence "'Keep off the grass,' said the sign, but I ignored it"; can "quoth" go there? My intuition is that it can't, but I don't really have the resources to check texts to see if that's true.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I suppose written language has its own grammar...

But regarding your question about the subject being animate, in Renaissance sentences (and indeed later ones) that appeal to some authority, it seems to me that it's frequently ambiguous whether the subject of a "quoth" sentence is the author of the quotation, or the book in which the author's words are to be found. "Quoth Ptolemy..." may be a way of saying, "It says here in the Almagest" more than "This is what Claudius Ptolemy thinks". Just as, today, I might ask you "What does Webster have to say about 'Quoth'?"

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

" 'Shake' quoth the dovehouse" (Romeo and Juliet). Of course that's figurative - the Nurse is animating the dovehouse during the earthquake.

"Shake" quoth the dovehouse

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

"Went" was the past tense of "wend," till it goed in the direction of a mosaic: go, went. A fairly rare instance (I believe) of a strong form replacing a weak one. (Usually words like "dive/dove" give way to "dive/dived.")

Wrought doesn't have a present tense in modern English, really. I mean it is the past tense of "work" but most people wouldn't make that connection

Here, handily, is the whole OED def of "quoth," over, I am afraid, several comments:

quoth, v.

Pronunciation: Brit. /kwəʊθ/ , U.S. /kwoʊθ/

Forms: 1. Past tense. a. 1st and 3rd singular indicative
α. OE ceð (Mercian), OE coeð (Northumbrian), OE cuæð, OE cueð, OE cuęð, OE cuoæð (Northumbrian), OE cuoeað (Northumbrian), OE cuoęð (Northumbrian), OE cuoeð (Northumbrian), OE cuðæ, OE cuuoeð (Northumbrian), OE cwaeð, OE cweoð (Northumbrian), OE cweþ, OE cwęþ, OE cwęð, OE cweðð, OE cwoeð (Northumbrian), OE kwæð, OE–eME cwæþ, OE–eME cwæð, OE–eME cwað, OE–eME cweð, OE–eME quæð, lOE ceweð, eME cþæð (transmission error), eME cwaþ, eME cwaþþ ( Ormulum), eME waþ, eME wað, ME quaþ, ME quað, ME quaþe, ME quath, ME quathe, ME queþ, ME queð, ME quuað.

β. OE cuoð (Northumbrian), eME oþed (transmission error), ME coþe, ME coth, ME quoþ, ME quoð, ME (18 Eng. regional) cuth, ME–15 cothe, ME– quoth, 15 qothe, 15 qwoth; Sc. pre-17 qwoth, pre-17 17– quoth.

γ. OE–eME cwæd, lOE–eME cwed, eME cwet, eME hwat, ME quad, ME quæd, ME quat, ME quatz, ME quuad.

δ. ME cod, ME kod (in a late copy), ME quot, ME–16 quod; Sc. pre-17 qod (prob. transmission error), pre-17 qoud (prob. transmission error), pre-17 quhod, pre-17 qwod, pre-17 17–18 quod, 18 quot'.

ε. lME quo, 15 ka, 15 ko, 17 quo'; Eng. regional 17 ke (Durham), 17 qu' (north.), 18 ko (Lancs.), 18– ka (north. and E. Anglian), 18– ki (north.), 18– quo' (north. and midl.); Sc. pre-17 17– quo, pre-17 (18– Shetland and Orkney) co, 17– co', 17– quo', 19– ko (Shetland); Irish English 18– co, 18– quo', 19– ca (north.), 19– qua (north.), 19– quo.

ζ. Eng. regional 17 kive (north.), 18 kih (Northumberland), 18 kiv (Northumberland).

Also (in Older Scots) represented by the abbreviations qt, qot, quhot, qod, q, qȝ; see also qd. v. b. 2nd singular indicative OE coeðe (Northumbrian), OE cuede, OE cuoede (Northumbrian), OE cwæþe, OE cwæðe, OE cwede, OE–eME cwæde. c. plural indicative OE cuædan, OE cuædon, OE cuedon, OE cueodon (Northumbrian), OE cuoeden (Northumbrian), OE cuoedon (Northumbrian), OE cuoedun (Northumbrian), OE cuoeðon (Northumbrian), OE cwædan, OE cwædun, OE cwædyn, OE cwæðdun (Northumbrian), OE cwæðen, OE cwæþon, OE cwæðun, OE cwedan, OE cwęden, OE cwedun, OE cweðæn, OE cweþon, OE cweðon, OE cwoedon (Northumbrian), OE–eME cwæden, OE–eME cwædon, OE–eME cwæðon, OE–eME cwedon, lOE cwæde (before personal pronoun), lOE cwieþon (Kentish), eME cuþæn, eME cwadan, eME cwæðe, eME cweden, eME cweþen, eME cweðen, ME quaþe, ME queþe, ME queþen, ME queðen, ME quoðen. 2. Present stem. 18– quoth.
Etymology: Originally the past tense of queath v. (compare discussion at that entry).
The verb shows the usual simplification of the strong verb past tense paradigm in late Middle English with the forms of the 1st and 3rd singular being levelled to all other persons, singular and plural (compare e.g. quots. c1300 at sense 1bα. , a1425, 1583 at sense 1bβ. ). The word remained in fossilized and archaic use (in sense 1b) after queath v. had become obsolete (by the end of the 16th cent.); from the second half of the 19th cent. onwards a new inferred present stem quoth is attested (see branch II.) in chiefly humorous use.

Part 2 of OED definition

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

The α. forms of the 1st and 3rd singular past indicative reflect the usual stem vowel (æ ) of an Old English strong verb of Class V. The development of forms with stem vowel o (see β. forms) has diverse origins: (i) levelling of the rounded vowel resulting from combinative back mutation in Northumbrian Old English (see discussion at queath v.); (ii) rounding of Middle English short a (of the 1st and 3rd singular past indicative) after w ; (iii) borrowing of the vowel (represented by Middle English long open ō ) of the early Scandinavian plural past indicative forms (compare Old Icelandic kváðum (1st plural past indicative)); both short and long realizations are recorded by 17th-cent. orthoepists (see E. J. Dobson Eng. Pronunc. 1500–1700 (ed. 2, 1968) II. §§339, 421).

The γ. and δ. forms of the 1st and 3rd singular past indicative apparently show spread of -d (subsequently sometimes devoiced to -t ) from the 2nd singular and plural past indicative, although in some early instances (in Old English and early Middle English) these forms may show simply a scribal error of an uncrossed -d for -ð . In early Middle English the manuscript abbreviation for Latin quod was also often used for Middle English quod ‘spoke’, and subsequently also in other scribal systems where the full written form would have been quoth , etc. This phenomenon may have led to the more widespread introduction of quod as a written form (even when intended to represent a spoken form with a final fricative).

The ε. forms show loss of final consonant consistent with a word typically occurring in an unstressed position. The ζ. forms show occasional replacement of final consonant, a phenomenon apparently restricted to the north-east of England.

A few isolated early attestations (in Old English) of apparent ε. forms of the 3rd singular past indicative are probably the result of scribal error; compare:
OE (Northumbrian) Lindisf. Gospels: Luke (headings to readings) xciv, Conloquentibus discipulis adstans in medio dicit pax uobis : efnesprecendum ðegnum astod on middum cuoe sibb iuh.
lOE Salisbury Psalter xxxv. 2 Dixit iniustus ut delinquat in semetipso, non est timor dei ante oculos eius : cwæ þe unrihtwisa þæt he agulde on sylfum him, na is ege godes beforan egan his.

I. Past indicative.
1. Spoke, said.
Categories »

a. trans. Without direct speech. Now arch.

eOE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Tanner) ii. ii. 102 Hwæt heo dydon, swa swa he cwæð.
lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough interpolation) anno 656, Se kining‥cweð þa þet he wolde hit [sc. Medeshamstede] wurðminten.
c1175 (OE) Homily: Hist. Holy Rood-tree (Bodl. 343) 16 Yfele cwæde ðu ðæt þu þa halȝæn mæȝne to ȝyrdon næmdest.
a1250 (1200) Ancrene Riwle (Nero) (1952) 53 Ne cweð he neuer aword.
a1400 (1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) 22973 Mani man‥Wat noght þis word i for-wit quath [a1400 Coll. Phys. quaþe].

1840 F. S. T. Hill Poems 58 The young Sir Aylmer‥to the foe such glance doth give, As plainly quoth, that one doth live Who ne'er will quail beneath his rage!
1909 F. B. Gummere tr. Beowulf xliii, in Oldest Eng. Epic 158 Thus made their mourning the men of Geatland, for their hero's passing his hearth-companions: quoth that of all the kings of earth, of men he was mildest and most belovéd.

Part 3

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

b. trans. With direct speech: with the subject either a pronoun in the first or third person, or else a noun, indicating that the subject's words are being repeated: said (he, etc.). Now arch.
The verb is freq. (now usually) placed before the subject; the clause is commonly inserted parenthetically towards the beginning of the words quoted, but it may also precede or follow the whole of the quoted text.

In quot. OE at β. the Old English is an interlinear gloss and consequently follows the word order of the Latin.

α.
eOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) xxxvi. 106 Ða cwæð ic: þæt is soð; ne mæg ic þæs oðsacan.
OE tr. Apollonius of Tyre xiv. 20 Ða cwæð se cyng: ‘Þurh hwæt wast ðu þæt?’
c1175 (OE) Proverb (Faust. A.x) in N. R. Ker Catal. MSS containing Anglo-Saxon (1957) 194 Þa tadda cw[æð] to þar eiþa Forwurþa swa fola maistres [L. Ad traeam dixit pereant tot buffo magistri].
a1225 (1200) Vices & Virtues 67 ‘Hlauerd,’ cwað he, ‘hwat mai ic don ðat ic mihte hauen ðat eche lif?’
c1275 (1216) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) 1739 ‘Ich an wel,’ cwað þe niȝtegale.
c1300 St. Edmund Rich (Harl.) 39 in C. D'Evelyn & A. J. Mill S. Eng. Legendary (1956) 493 ‘Leoue moder,’ quaþ [c1300 Laud queþen] þe sones, ‘we schulle don after þi lore.’
a1325 (1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 929 Quad he, ‘quat sal me welðes ware?’
c1400 (1387) Langland Piers Plowman (Huntington HM 137) (1873) C. xi. 20 ‘Contra,’ quaþ ich.
β.
OE (Northumbrian) Lindisf. Gospels: Luke xvi. 3 Ait autem uilicus intra se quid faciam quia dominus meus aufert a me uilicationem? : cuoð ða se groefa bitiuih him huætd ic doam forðon drihten min benimeð from me þæt groefscire?
c1225 (1200) St. Juliana (Bodl.) 685 ‘Swiðe,’ quoð he, ‘wið hire ut of min ehsihðe!’
a1325 (1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 2993 Quoðen ðo wiches clerkes, ‘ðis Fortoken godes gastes is.’
c1400 (1390) Sir Gawain & Green Knight (1940) 776 ‘Now bone hostel,’ coþe þe burne, ‘I be-seche yow ȝette.’
a1425 (1300) Northern Passion (Cambr. Gg.5.31) 1561 ‘Maister,’ coth þai, ‘þou hyes þe fast.’
?a1450 Metrical Life Christ (1977) 55 Quoþ oure Lord, ‘I am he.’
1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue ii. ii. sig. G, And so late met, that I feare, we parte not yeet, Quoth the baker to the pillory.
1583 A. Nowell & W. Day True Rep. Disput. with E. Campion sig. E4v, The fire (quoth we) hath heate and light.
1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. iii. 91 No, Quoth the King, I will not be both party and judg.
1680 J. Bunyan Mr Badman xii, in Wks. (1855) III. 647 Like to like, quoth the devil to the collier.
1721 J. Kelly Compl. Coll. Scotish Prov. 389 You look like a runner, quoth the Dee'l to the lobster.

Part 4 "Quoth Mrs. Gilpn, 'That's well said' "

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

1782 W. Cowper John Gilpin 25 Quoth Mrs. Gilpin, ‘That's well said.’
1838 E. Bulwer-Lytton Alice I. iv. iii. 352 ‘I know no man I respect more than Maltravers,’ quoth the Admiral.
1845 E. A. Poe Raven 3 Quoth the raven, ‘Nevermore.’
1884 R. Browning Mihrab Shah in Ferishtah's Fancies 1 Quoth an inquirer, ‘Praise the Merciful!’
1927 Baroness Orczy Sir Percy hits Back xxxix. 318 ‘Egad man, you are priceless,’ quoth Sir Percy gaily.
1993 Observer 31 Jan. 62/5 The boss delivered himself of a rousing piece of corpo-speak. ‘Rockwater is a company with a mission to be a leader,’ quoth he.
γ.
OE tr. Alexander's Let. to Aristotle §37. 250 Ða ondswarode me þæt triow Indiscum wordum & þus cwæd: ‘Ða unoferswyðda Alexander in gefeohtum þu weorðest cyning & hlaford ealles middangeardes.’
lOE King Ælfred tr. St. Augustine Soliloquies (Vitell.) (1969) i. 49 Þa cwæd heo: is þin gemind swa mihtig þæt hit mage eall gehealden þæt þu geðengst and hym bebeotst to healdenne?
c1275 (1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) 13673 ‘Lauerdinges,’ quæd Luces þa, ‘Mahun eou beo liðe.’
c1300 Havelok (Laud) (1868) 1650 ‘Deus!’ hwat ubbe, ‘qui ne were he knith?’
a1325 (1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 933 Quat god, ‘so sal it nogt ben.’
c1400 (1378) Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. vi. l. 3 Quatz Perkyn þe plouman, ‘bi seynt Peter of Rome, I haue an half acre to erye.’
δ.
?c1225 (1200) Ancrene Riwle (Cleo. C.vi) (1972) 253 Ga quod vre lauerd, & haue wil þet þu nult sunege namare.
?a1300 Iacob & Iosep (Bodl.) (1916) 203 ‘Leuedi,’ quod Iosep, ‘wat þi wille be?’
c1330 (1300) Guy of Warwick (Auch.) 524 ‘Ȝa,’ quod Gij.
a1400 (1325) Cursor Mundi (Gött.) 5005 ‘Say me,’ quot iacob, ‘hou es þis?’
a1425 (1385) Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) ii. 398 To late ywar, quod beaute, whan it paste.
a1450 Pater Noster Richard Ermyte (Westm. Sch. 3) (1967) 7 ‘Mowe ȝee’, quod he, ‘drynk of þat drink þat I schal drynk of?’
?1507 W. Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen (Rouen) in Poems (1998) 45 ‘To speik’, quod scho, ‘I sall nought spar.’
1549 Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 1 Tim. i. f. iiv, I haue not chosen (quod he) out of an other mannes flocke.
c1620 A. Hume Of Orthogr. Britan Tongue (1870) i. vii. §8 Be quhat reason? quod the Doctour.
1638 H. Adamson Muses Threnodie 5 Then, Gossop Gall (quod I) I dar approve.
a1774 R. Fergusson Poems (1956) II. 161 Quod she, ‘I ferly unco sair, That ye sud musand gae.’
1815 W. Finlayson Simple Sc. Rhymes 165 Quod Ferguson: our weil won fame In Scotland sae enhanc'd our name.
1893 R. L. Stevenson Catriona ii. 14 Get a ship for him, quot' he! And who's to pay for it? The man's daft!
ε.
a1500 (1450) Merlin (1899) 33 ‘In feith,’ quo the oon, ‘I sholde suffer grete myschef.’
a1556 N. Udall Ralph Roister Doister (?1566) iii. iii. sig. D.iiij, Bawawe what ye say (ko I)‥Nay I feare him not (ko she).
a1628 J. Carmichael Proverbs (1957) No. 217, A things eiks, quo the wran, quhen [etc.].
1676 J. Welsh Gospel Summonds (1720) Pref. 5 And the young ones will speir, how could that be? (co the bairns) Was that in Covenanted-Scotland?
1706 tr. H. Schopperus Crafty Courtier i. xiv. 57 Gods! quo' the buxom Partner of his Bed.
a1774 R. Fergusson Poems (1785) ii. 172 Quo' he, ‘This bell o'mine's a trick.’
1817 Scott Rob Roy II. xi. 236 Whae's Mr. Robert Campbell, quo' he?
1862 A. Hislop Prov. Sc. 142 ‘Mair whistle than woo,’ quo' the souter when he sheared the sow.
1893 S. R. Crockett Stickit Minister 127 ‘Horse or mule,’ quo' she.
1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes 15 ‘Teedisome brae,’ quo A.
2003 S. Blackhall Loon in H. MacDonald & S. Blackhall Double Heider 8 ‘Sae yon's yer Da, is't?’ quo he.
ζ.
1787 F. Grose Provinc. Gloss., Kive I, quoth I. N.
a1828 T. Bewick Howdy & Upgetting (1850) 9 Ae-hy, ae-hy, kih she.
a1828 T. Bewick Howdy & Upgetting (1850) 15 Oh kiv aw, but aw was meanin your grandmuther.

Part 5

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

†c. intr. Chiefly Sc. Used at the end of a piece of text to introduce the name of the author or scribe: wrote (i.e. written by).Obs.
In quot. 1584 humorously echoing this convention.

c1500 in Kingis Quair (1939) 48 Explicit, &c. Quod Jacobus Primus.
?1507 W. Dunbar Poems (1998) 97 Quod Dunbar quhen he was sek.
?1550 R. Weaver Lusty Iuventus sig. E.iiv, Finis. Quod R. Weuer.
1583 in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. xlv. *1118 Finis. Quod R. S.
1584 J. Maxwall Commonplace Bk. f. 1v, Finis quod I ȝe watt quha.
[1788 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) I. 417 Quod, the Beadsman of Nith-side.]


†d. trans. Used interrogatively with a pronoun of the second person, after repeating something said by the person addressed: said (you). Cf. quotha int. Obs.
The form quothee may be a var. of quotha int.

a1556 N. Udall Ralph Roister Doister (?1566) i. ii. sig. B.j, Enamoured, quod you?‥ Enamoured ka?
1583 P. Stubbes Second Pt. Anat. Abuses sig. C3v, Rich quoth you? They are rich indeede toward the deuill, and the world.
a1600 I. T. Grim the Collier (1662) ii. iv. 30 As it falls! quoth ye, marry a foul fall is it.
1681 Heraclitus Ridens 1 Mar. 2/1 Earn.‥ And what Trade do they intend to drive? Jest. What Trade quothee!
1688 T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia iv. i. 55 Your Son, quoth ye? He is like to make a fine Husband.


†e. trans. fig. With a thing as subject and a word denoting a sound or movement as object. Obs.
In quot. 1568 expressed by the abbreviation q (cf. Q n. 16a).

1568 in W. T. Ritchie Bannatyne MS (1928) III. 37 Snop q the telȝeor snap q the scheiris, Cokkis bownis q the lowiss I haif lost myne Eiris.
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monuments (new ed.) 1912/2 Crashe quoth the pulpit, downe commeth the dauncer.
1597 Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet i. iii. 33 Shake quoth the Doue-house.
1613 F. Beaumont Knight of Burning Pestle v. ii. sig. I4, Sa, sa, sa, bounce quoth the guns.
a1687 C. Cotton Poems (1689) 174 'Twas I that‥pull'd the Cork out. Bounce, quoth the Bottle, the work being done.
1773 E. de Franchetti Granny's Prediction 39 Suddenly shake quoth the crab-tree, down tumble the apples.

†2. trans.

a. Declared. Obs.

OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) xxxiv. 466 Þa on ðære ylcan tide neapolite‥cwædon gefeoht togeanes þære burhware sepontiniscre ceastre.
lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Domitian A.viii) anno 1050, Þa gehet se cing ðæt man scolde habban eft ealra gewitena gemot on Lundene‥and man cwæð Swegen eorl utlah.

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b. Promised. Obs. rare.

a1325 (1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 755 God quad to abram al ðis lond Sal cumen in-to is kinnes hond.

part 6 - here endeth the OED definition

[nightspore.livejournal.com]

†3. trans.

a. Gave up, renounced. Obs.

c1225 (1200) St. Katherine (Bodl. 34) 48 Al ha icneowen ham crauant ant ouercumen, ant cweþen hire þe meistrie ant te meske al up.



b. Bequeathed. Obs.

?a1400 (1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt 511) ii. 135 To Waltham ȝede þe kyng, his testament to make, & þus quathe he his þing for his soule sake.


II. Inferred present stem.

4. trans. To say, to utter.
In later use U.S., with allusion to Poe's poem The Raven (1845); cf. quot. 1845 at sense 1bβ. .

1864 F. Palgrave Hist. Normandy & Eng. III. 402 The owner had the power of transmitting the possession to an heir by bequest, by quothing or speaking forth the name of his intended successor to the lord.
1956 New Castle (Pa.) News 22 Mar. 4/6 Garbo is widely considered to have retired from her film career‥. To have writ finis on acting. But unlike the raven quothing ‘nevermore’ Miss Garbo she don't quoth word one [sic] on the subject.
1969 Winnipeg Free Press 26 July 27/3 Only the wheeling seabirds disturb the silence, and a gloomy raven quothing ‘Nevermore!’ from a rooftop.
1984 Washington Post (Nexis) 3 Aug. b7 Edgar Allan Poe's ‘The Raven’ is now ‘The Reagan’, quothing ‘cut some more’.



5. intr. To use the word quoth.

1924 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald (Electronic text) 20 Dec., ‘You beautiful concoction’ quoth I—and then—I stopped quothing.
2002 Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio) (Nexis) 25 Aug. (Arts section) j10 Everyone talks as if he belongs in Jane Austen's parlor.‥They're always ‘quothing’ at each other.

Derivatives



ˈquothing n. the action or an act of speaking; an utterance.

1925 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald (Electronic text) 22 Oct. (heading) More quothing.
1999 W. L. Heat Moon River Horse vi. 189, I once heard the birds called river ravens, and assuredly the evening fit their dark plumes and mournful quothings.
2003 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 14 July 27 ‘The English novel simply would not be the great thing it is if Jane Austen had not existed,’ quoth—quothing is what she does—Ms Byatt.

Re: part 6 - here endeth the OED definition

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Zounds, nightspore - that's quite a labour! Now, if you don't mind just doing the same for the other words in the OED, my blog may yet become a useful resource. :)

Re: part 6 - here endeth the OED definition

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It's striking how this verb moved into a humorously mock-archaic usage. The the modern "quothing" examples are one thing, but one of the writers above was at it in 1584! I wonder why it wasn't allowed to fade into dignified obscurity? (As for "Everyone talks as if he belongs in Jane Austen's parlor.‥They're always ‘quothing’ at each other" - the less said the better.)