"place, location, position," 1610s, common in English c.1640-1740, from Latin ubi "where?, in which place, in what place," relative pronomial adverb of place, ultimately from PIE *kwo-bhi- (cognates: Sanskrit kuha, Old Church Slavonic kude "where"), locative case of pronomial base *kwo- (see who). Ubi sunt, literally "where are" (1914), in reference to lamentations for the mutability of things is from a phrase used in certain Medieval Latin Christian works.