quiddity

American  

[kwid-i-tee] / ˈkwɪd ɪ ti /

noun

• quiddities
  plural

1. Also called whatness. the quality that makes a thing what it is; the essential nature of a thing.

2. a trifling nicety of subtle distinction, as in argument.

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quiddity British  

/ ˈkwɪdɪtɪ /

noun

1. philosophy the essential nature of something Compare haecceity

2. a petty or trifling distinction; quibble

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• quiddities
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of quiddity

First recorded in 1350–1400; from Medieval Latin quidditās, equivalent to Latin quid “what” + -itās noun suffix; see -ity

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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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

quiddity quiddities

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

Sapped of quiddity, she has become “an all-American girl.”

From New York Times ● Jun. 23, 2016

Beautifying asphalt would seem to be no cinch, but the naked quiddity of the stuff, after a third or fourth look, turns cherishable.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 21, 2016

You will reply, perhaps, that in the fore-said definition is included what doth sufficiently distinguish it from nothing--the positive abstract idea of quiddity, entity, or existence.

From A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge by George Berkeley

“When you homogenize a city, you destroy its feeling of urbanity,” Ms. Schulman said, referring to the banks and drugstores and chains retailers steadily wallpapering over the city’s indispensable quiddities.

From New York Times ● Feb. 25, 2020

Whatever is going on, whatever misalliances and misdelving of quiddities we get into, the human heart is still beating in the same way in everybody’s chest.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 2, 2016

Once her eye adjusted to the determined quiddities of her adopted hometown, she said, “Even weird cinder-block strange things from the 1950s started to look fabulous.”

From New York Times ● Jun. 12, 2015

Patterson's towering editorial rages have largely disappeared, and his quiddities, which persisted out of habit, now seem to be receding.

From Time Magazine Archive

None o' thy quiddities, thou maker of long lies and quick legs.

From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 by John Roby

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Related Words

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• basis
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• quality
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