Etymograph

English

quality

Quality comes from Old French qualité, from Latin quālitās, from quālis ‘of what kind’, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- ‘who’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷo-1‘who, how’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquālis1‘of what kind’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquālitās1‘quality’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400qualité1
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500qualite1
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1601quality1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English quality
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […]: “Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough?…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*kʷo-Wiktionary, English quality‘who, how’reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquālisWiktionary, English quality‘of what kind’
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEquālitāsWiktionary, English quality‘quality’
  4. Old Frenchc. 842–1400qualitéWiktionary, English quality
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500qualiteWiktionary, English quality
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1601qualityWiktionary, English quality. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1601, Ben Jonson, Poetaster or The Arraignment: […]: “Tuc[ca]. […] Can thy Author doe it impudently enough?…”

The story

Cicero coined qualitas as a calque to translate the Ancient Greek word ποιότης (poiótēs, “quality”), coined by Plato from ποῖος (poîos, “of what nature, of what kind”).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Every English word from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo-

Today it means

noun The kind, condition, and/or the set of characteristics of something, as opposed to the quantity of something.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “quality”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- / quality

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