This section all comesSummary: What I think from evidence in the following sections
- 其 is a syllabic particle without lexical meaning and grammatical function.
與其=與
尤其=尤 The more ancient it is, the more frequent 尤 is used. At the extreme, in Standard Mandarin 尤 is not used stand-alone except for fixed expressions inherited from 陽伯峻Classical Chinese.
- 其 is a future tense particle derived from irrealis modality.
殆其失國。
- 何其 is more complicated.
① 其 is a syllabic particle without lexical meaning and grammatical function.
賜,汝來何其晚也? (賜,你來得為什麼這麼遲?)《史記》
② 其 is an intensifying particle.
曷其有機? (什麼時候有盡頭?) 《詩》
③ 其 is an interrogative particle, pronounced as ji1.
若之何其? (怎麼辦呢?) 《尚書》
Usage ③ is distinctively different. But for ① and ②, I simply tried to replace one with the other and put it back in contexts to feel the difference. If it feels different, I put it as ②, otherwise ①.
This section all comes from 陽伯峻
①其 sometimes is used in the middle of a sentence without obvious meaning or grammatical function. It simply adds a syllable. Under this entry, he gave some examples when 其 is used with other characters.
This section comes from 《古代漢語虛詞詞典》.This section comes from 社科院 《古代漢語虛詞詞典》. I only list what I think is credible and is different or absent from 陽伯峻's.
In this example,殆其 cannot be used instead of 殆. Compare it with
殆先生乎? (大概就是先生吧?) 《史記》 There's no future tense involved.