What may be the etymology of たり?

Question

Hi all does anyone know why does たりとも mean "not even; not any" ?

Example sentence: 一問たりとも答えられなかった

I was thinking the たり is attached to 一問 to mean something like "stuff like one question" and と means something like "if" and the も means something like "even" so it becomes "even if it's one question, can't answer" but it sounds abit quirky.

Answer 1

You are close, but yout problem is that you are trying to interpret ...たりとも as a modifying clause. It is rather a subject with a relative clause: 'I could not answer even something that is a (mere) single question'.

But if you are not particularly interested in a deep analysis, you can just understand たりとも as a fixed expression meaning 'even'.

Answer 2

As was discussed back in adj-たる, 「Ｘたり」 is actually the quote particle plus noun 「Ｘとあり」, Referring to the existence of 「Ｘ」. So the sentence translates to "Even if one question exists, couldn't answer", or more simply, "Couldn't answer even one question".