quiddity
Americannoun
plural
quiddities-
Also called whatness. the quality that makes a thing what it is; the essential nature of a thing.
-
a trifling nicety of subtle distinction, as in argument.
noun
-
philosophy the essential nature of something Compare haecceity
-
a petty or trifling distinction; quibble
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.
Ample quotations from Hardwick allow her restless quiddity to come through.
From New York Times • Nov. 3, 2021
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
Here’s an irony: if anything preserves the unnerving quiddity and strangeness of the Japanese movie, it is Johansson.
From The New Yorker • Mar. 31, 2017
Is not pun from Punic? punica fides: the very quint-essential quiddity of bad faith: double-visaged: double-tongued.
From Maid Marian by Peacock, Thomas Love
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.
