1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. quiddity

Find the word definition

What is "quiddity"

Crossword clues for quiddity

quiddity
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Quiddity

Quiddity \Quid"di*ty\, n.; pl. Quiddities. [LL. quidditas, fr. L. quid what, neut. of quis who, akin to E. who: cf. F. quiddit['e].]

  1. The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity, of a thing; that which answers the question, Quid est? or, What is it? `` The degree of nullity and quiddity.''
    --Bacon.

    The quiddity or characteristic difference of poetry as distinguished from prose.
    --De Quincey.

  2. A trifling nicety; a cavil; a quibble.

    We laugh at the quiddities of those writers now.
    --Coleridge.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
quiddity

"a trifling nicety in argument, a quibble," 1530s, from Medieval Latin quidditas "the essence of things," in Scholastic philosophy, "that which distinguishes a thing from other things," literally "whatness," from Latin quid "what," neuter of indefinite pronoun quis "somebody, someone or other" (see who). Sense developed from scholastic disputes over the nature of things. Original classical meaning "real essence or nature of a thing" is attested in English from late 14c.

Wiktionary
quiddity

n. 1 (context philosophy English) The essence or inherent nature of a person or thing. 2 (context legal English) A trifle; a nicety or quibble. 3 An eccentricity; an odd feature.

WordNet
quiddity

  1. n. an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections [syn: quibble, cavil]

  2. the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other [syn: haecceity]

Wikipedia
Quiddity

In scholastic philosophy, quiddity (; Latin: quidditas) was another term for the essence of an object, literally its "whatness" or "what it is".

Usage examples of "quiddity".

Fool valiant and wise, a maker of songs, of quips and quiddities many and jocund, Joconde hight.

Fool valiant and wise, a maker of songs, of quips and quiddities many and jocund, Joconde hight.

So the humiliated scientist, all of whose quips and quiddities had been knocked out of him in the last hour, fetched the burnt manuscript from the fender and handed round a collection of such slips as were still legible, as if it had been a parlour game in earnest.

Fletcher did not entirely understand what Quiddity was (perhaps no human could), but he was certain the }aff, who'd used the Nuncio to cheat his way out of his limitations, would wreak havoc there.