I’ve checked several sources, including Wiktionary and SpanishDict, and understand the basic construction, which was obvious to me prior: cual
+ quiera
. Why was that particular form of “querer” chosen? Quiera
is the present tense in subjunctive mood (unlikely that it was the imperative form, correct?), for the first, second formal, and third person. When the word was originally conceived, what was the specific form that was chosen and why? Was it “which[ever] you [may] want”, “which[ever] he/she (abstract singular ‘they’) may want”?
Was “which[ever] it [may] be (that would be something like ‘cualsea’, innit?)” ever considered? And I see that there already exists phrasal ‘cual sea’, so is it a synonym and how widely is it used?
Obviously, I use “may” here very loosely to make English variant translations sound better, but my grasp of Spanish subjunctive is next to non-existent, so, forgive me, por favor, for the lack of understanding on that part.
cualquiera
is the full form with no gender distinction andcualquier
is the short version (with the usage depending on relative position). Same with plural forms (cuales
instead ofcual
). So the variance has no bearing on original etymology ofcual
+quiera
.