köken: From Old French alcun, from Vulgar Latin *alicunus, from Latin aliquī + unus. Cognate with Italian alcuno, Spanish alguno, Galician algún, Portuguese algum.
köken: Inherited from Old Spanish alguien and the variations algui (c. 1260) and alguién (c. 16th c., but probably earlier). First attested in the form alguien in a 1247 document from San Esteban de Nogales. Two main etymologies have been suggested: * As a variant of alguno under the influence of, or conflated with, quien; probably originally being pronounced alguién (cf. Portuguese alguém, Galician…
neither, not ... either (also not) · Used to emphasize lack of alternatives. · Used to soften a question, e.g. when the speaker is asking to be reminded of something, or when the speaker is seeking agreement or confirmation.
zıt: -kin
köken: According to Hakulinen, from earlier *-kahan, composed of -ka (as seen in joka and kuka) and -han, and why the particle is restricted to contexts with negative polarity is not clear. Räisänen (1996) presents an alternative etymology, in which the particle originates from the partitive forms of indefinite pronouns like ketään, mitään, in which it is developed from a reduction of -ka through…
neither, neither one · neuter (gender) · neuter, intransitive (of a verb)
köken: Etymology tree Latin ne Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- Proto-Indo-European *kʷos Proto-Indo-European *-teros Proto-Indo-European *kʷóteros Proto-Italic *kʷoteros Latin uter Latin neuter From ne (“not”) + uter (“either”). In the grammatical sense, a semantic loan from Koine Greek οὐδέτερος (oudéteros), from οὐδέ (oudé, “not”) + ἕτερος (héteros, “one or the other (of two)”).