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[Quoth Edict](http://www.edrdg.org/cgi-
bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?1MUE%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82), たりとも means
"(not) even; (not) any", and is probably used as such:

> 一問たりとも答えられなかった。(even one question, cannot answer)

Is たりとも made up of the individual portions [たり](http://www.edrdg.org/cgi-
bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?1MUE%E3%81%9F%E3%82%8A) ("such things as") and
[とも](http://www.edrdg.org/cgi-bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?1MUE%E3%81%A8%E3%82%82)
("even if")?

What's the etymology of たりとも?

What are some other ways to analyze its construction?
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2011-08-19T15:56:02.800
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2014-07-20T14:23:00.060
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question
grammar etymology
What's the analysis for たりとも?
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'.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2011-08-19T16:50:46.720
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2011-08-19T16:50:46.720
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answer