Re: Etymology of "quandary"

I wonder if the stress on the second syllable (apparently normative until the latter part of the 20th C) points toward another possibility. It could be a haplology of Italian _quando andare_ ("When to go...?"), describing a particular kind of quandary which may have become more general.


J("Joe Strummer")M("me debo ir o quedarme")P

________________________________
From: Classical Greek and Latin Discussion Group <[email protected]> on behalf of DANIEL P. Tompkins <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, May 31, 2019 12:46 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [EXTERNAL] [CLASSICS-L] Etymology of "quandary"

It's always terrific to come across a word with unknown etymology,
especially when the OED cites Leo Spitzer, one of the great philologists of
the last century -- he carried all European literature around in his head,
someone said.

Dan

"Quandary" in *Oxford English Dictionary*:

Etymology: Origin unknown. Various etymologies have been suggested, *all of
them implausible*. Perhaps compare CONUNDRUM n.

A recurrent suggestion is that the word is an alteration of some
post-classical Latin term, arising (perhaps humorously) in scholastic or
university use. This is not impossible …

Some of the more fanciful suggestions are: that the word derives < French
qu'en dirai-je ‘what shall I say of it?’; …

A further ingenious suggestion was made by L. Spitzer …  he argued for a
French origin of the word, proposing an (*unattested*) earlier form of
calambredaine (colloquial) nonsense, twaddle, balderdash (1798; of
uncertain origin) as common etymon of both QUANDARY n. and CONUNDRUM n.,
and perhaps even of KANKEDORT n. (which is attested much earlier).
[Chaucer: "Was Troylus nought in a kankedort?"]