quidnunc

[kwid-nuhngk]

noun

1. a person who is eager to know the latest news and gossip; a gossip or busybody.

quidnunc

/ ˈkwɪdˌnʌŋk /

noun

1. a person eager to learn news and scandal; gossipmonger

Word History and Origins

Origin of quidnunc¹

First recorded in 1700–10, quidnunc is from Latin quid nunc “what now?”

Word History and Origins

Origin of quidnunc¹

C18: from Latin, literally: what now

Example Sentences

“Quid pro quo” can be found under “Q” in the dictionary proper, between “quidnunc” and “quids in.”

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It was then sold in convenient pennyworths;—hence coffee-houses where wits, quidnuncs, and idlers resorted, were called “penny universities.”

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We have not now to haggle with the quidnuncs over the less or more of Art permissible in a garden, but to fight out the question whether civilisation shall have any garden at all.

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London had been bewildered, and its literary quidnuncs utterly puzzled, when such a story first came forth inscribed with an unknown name.

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Alas! capricious fate that governs these things turned my sweet, unconscious Ellen to one forever on the alert for the appearance of this long-legged quidnunc.

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