# quasi
## English
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi (“as if”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kwɑːzi/, /kwɑːsi/, /ˈkweɪ.zaɪ/, /ˈkweɪ.saɪ/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɑːzi
* Homophone: quasi-

### Adjective

quasi (not comparable)
* Resembling or having a likeness to something.
** 2000, Henry Martyn Robert with Sarah Corbin Robert, Robert's Rules of Order, 10th revised edition, page 522:The presiding officer of the assembly does not appoint a chairman of the quasi committee, but remains in the chair himself throughout its proceedings.

#### Derived terms

* quasi-
* quasi corporation
* quasi partner

#### Translations
## Catalan
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈkwa.zi]

### Adverb

quasi
* almost, nearly, quasi
    Synonym: gairebé

#### Related terms

* quasi-

### Further reading

* “quasi” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
* “quasi”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
* “quasi” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
* “quasi” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

## Dutch
### Alternative forms

* kwasi (before 1996)

### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi (“as if”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈkʋaːzi/
* Audio:(file)

### Adverb

quasi
* quasi

#### Synonyms

* alsof

## French
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ka.zi/
* Audio:(file)

### Adverb

quasi
* almost, nearly
    Synonym: presque

### Further reading

* “quasi”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* quais

## German
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi, initially officialese, later spreading into more colloquial registers.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈkvaːzi/, [ˈkʋaːzi]
* Audio (Austria):(file)
* Audio:(file)

### Adverb

quasi
* as it were, so to speak, effectively, essentially; used to mark a description as figurative, simplified or otherwise not to be taken as absolute, but illustrative of an important point
    Synonyms: gewissermaßen, gleichsam, sozusagen
* as good as, basically, virtually, more or less; used to describe a process or change of state that has not been technically completed, but the remainder is considered minor or a mere formality
    Synonyms: so gut wie, im Prinzip, mehr oder weniger
    Ich bin mit dem Studium quasi fertig.I'm as good as done with my degree.

### Further reading

* “quasi” in Duden online
* “quasi” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

## Italian
### Etymology

From Latin quasi. The final -i hints towards the word being borrowed or semi-learned, but it's not uncommon for Italian to shift final -e to -i (cf. avanti, dieci, tardi, etc.).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈkwa.zi/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -azi
* Hyphenation: quà‧si

### Adverb

quasi
* almost, nearly
    Synonyms: circa, poco meno che, pressoché, per poco non

### Adjective

quasi (invariable)
* almost
    ti presento il mio quasi maritomeet my almost-husband

### Conjunction

quasi
* (with subj.) as if
    Synonym: quasiché
    dà continuamente ordini quasi fosse lui il padronehe continually gives orders as if he were the boss

#### Derived terms

* quasiché
* quasimente
* quasi quasi

## Latin
### Etymology

Univerbation of quam (“how, as”) +‎ sī (“if”) with clitic shortening of the first vowel and iambic shortening of the second.

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈkʷa.si/, [ˈkʷäs̠ɪ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈkwa.si/, [ˈkwäːs̬i]
* Note: still found with the long final syllable in Lucretius, and again in late Latin poets.

### Conjunction

quasi
* (almost) as if, like
    Synonyms: ceu, (perinde) ac sī, tanquam, velut, ut, sīcut
    quasi vērō nesciam! ― as if I don't know!

#### Descendants

* Old Venetan: asques (Trevignano), squasio
* Old Lombard: quaxe
* Old Occitan: quaisses, cais
* Old Catalan: quaix
* Old Galician-Portuguese: acais
* Sicilian: quasi, squasi
* → Asturian: cuasi
* → Dutch: quasi
* → English: quasi
* → Esperanto: kvazaŭ
* → French: quasi
* → Galician: case
* → German: quasi
* →? Italian: quasi
* → Portuguese: quase
* → Romanian: quasi, Romanian: cvasi
* → Spanish: casi

### References

* Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “quasi”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, volume 2: C Q K, page 1428

### Further reading

* “quasi”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “quasi”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* "quasi", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
* quasi in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. to obscure the mental vision: mentis quasi luminibus officere (vid. sect. XIII. 6) or animo caliginem offundere to represent a thing dramatically: sic exponere aliquid, quasi agatur res (non quasi narretur) to make a cursory mention of a thing; to mention by the way (not obiter or in transcursu): quasi praeteriens, in transitu attingere aliquid belief in God is part of every one's nature: omnibus innatum est et in animo quasi insculptum esse deum I said en passant, by the way: dixi quasi praeteriens or in transitu

## Norman
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin quasi.

### Adverb

quasi
* almost, nearly

## Portuguese
### Adverb

quasi (not comparable)
* Pre-reform spelling (used until 1943 in Brazil and 1911 in Portugal) of quase.
** 1930 January 2, “Os novos medicos evangelicos realizaram um culto de Acção de Graças [The new evangelical doctors performed a Thanksgiving ceremony]”, in Correio da Manhã, volume XXIX, number 10741, Rio de Janeiro, page 7:Com a presença de avultadissimo numero de membros de quasi todas as egrejas evangelicas desta capital e de Nictheroy, o programma do culto teve inicio pouco depois das 4 horas […]With the presence of a very large number of members from almost all the evangelical churches of this capital and Niterói, the worship program began shortly after 4 o’clock.