quiddity
Americannoun
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Also called whatness. the quality that makes a thing what it is; the essential nature of a thing.
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a trifling nicety of subtle distinction, as in argument.
noun
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philosophy the essential nature of something Compare haecceity
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a petty or trifling distinction; quibble
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of quiddity
First recorded in 1350–1400; from Medieval Latin quidditās, equivalent to Latin quid “what” + -itās noun suffix; see -ity
Explanation
When a politician avoids answering a question while pretending to answer it, she often does it using quiddity, or by bringing up irrelevant and distracting points. Quiddity is a usefully sneaky tool if you want to evade an argument or question, and it's often used by people like lawyers in court and teenagers angling for later curfews. The noun quiddity has a philosophical meaning too, "the essential nature of something," or the unique thing that makes it what it is. The Medieval Latin root, quidditas, translates literally as "whatness."
Vocabulary lists containing quiddity
Two-Faced Words: Contronyms
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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Henry IV, Part 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And one of the few hopeful things I observed, in an otherwise grim time, was that, despite the advancing creep of retail sameness that long predated a pandemic, plenty of quiddity remained.
From New York Times • Sep. 15, 2021
“There is no way you can appreciate the quiddity of an elephant except by seeing one at close quarters,” he told the Observer.
From The Guardian • Feb. 2, 2020
As always, Herzog tries to remold his subject into an honorary Herzogian, all quirk and quiddity.
From The New Yorker • May 3, 2019
Sapped of quiddity, she has become “an all-American girl.”
From New York Times • Jun. 23, 2016
For we sometimes get at the quiddity of a thing by a composing and dividing process, as when, by division and demonstration, we seek out the truth of a definition.
From Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
