Declension case in "Quo vadis?" sentence

Question

Normally we use accusative to express the destination of the movement in Latin. Why then is the ablative form of interrogative pronoun (ie. "quo") used in the "Quo vadis?" sentence?

When we answer this question, everything is back to normal and we use accusative, for example "Romam vado".

Quō originated as the ablative of quī but it ended up taking on a life of its own as an adverb. One of the meanings it gained was "whither". — Draconis, Sep 22 '17 at 19:12
Thank you for your explanation. Why don't you add it as an answer, so I could accept it? — Marek Lipka, Sep 22 '17 at 20:34
It's a bit too short for the answer atm but I'll flesh it out tomorrow and provide some sources. — Draconis, Sep 22 '17 at 20:44

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 27 '18 at 09:17

6

Typically the direction of movement is expressed with accusative (perhaps with in or ad). While quo is originally an ablative of the interrogative pronoun, it should not be treated as an ablative here. Instead, just take it as an adverb, not as an inflected pronoun.

It would be interesting to know why the ablative form evolved into this pronoun.

answered Apr 27 '18 at 09:17

Joonas Ilmavirta

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Worth mentioning: A lot of adverbs have an ablative as origin; generally, if you find a puzzling ablative in a sentence, check whether it actually had become an adverb. – Canned Man Feb 17 '23 at 10:25

Declension case in "Quo vadis?" sentence

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