quidnunc
Americannoun
-
quidnuncs
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of quidnunc
First recorded in 1700–10, quidnunc is from Latin quid nunc “what now?”
Explanation
If you love to spread the latest gossip, you're a quidnunc. The neighborhood quidnunc is the person who seems to always know everyone's business. Quidnunc is archaic — it's hardly ever used these days. It's too bad, because it's a fun way to describe a busybody or rumormonger. You can call your nosy friend a quidnunc, or tell your dad, "Don't be such a quidnunc!" when he snoops in your room. Quidnunc was coined in the 1700s, combining the Latin words quid, "what," and nunc, "now," and mimicking someone who might constantly ask, "What's happening now?" or "What's the news?"
Vocabulary lists containing quidnunc
O'Reilly's Lexicon of Epithets
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The House of the Seven Gables
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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.
See Examples For:
Editor Upshaw was no longer a quidnunc but a martyr and a St George.
From Time Magazine Archive
More than one quidnunc murmured: "Easy guess where the two Morrows are going, but where did they come from?"
From Time Magazine Archive
Supplementing her syndicated newspaper column, Hedda's program has helped her to move in on the domain of Louella Parsons, Hearst's quidnunc extraordinary, who used to have Hollywood in her pudgy palms.
From Time Magazine Archive
And down went Kramer in Round 24; after negotiating quidnunc, eclectic, and sarcophagus, he missed ratiocination.
From Time Magazine Archive
He even becomes a quidnunc, prying now and then into the personal affairs of his superiors.
From The Book of Khalid by Ameen Fares Rihani
Political quidnuncs listened to it with blank surprise.
From Time Magazine Archive
Few political quidnuncs failed to agree that he had chosen the more astute choice.
From Time Magazine Archive
Then, as Truman gradually shed six Roosevelt men from the Cabinet, it began to look to Capital quidnuncs as though Ickes were for it.
From Time Magazine Archive
But political quidnuncs are beginning to ask whether the President may not be forced to call an extra session at an earlier date.
From Time Magazine Archive
Acknowledge, now, that I am worthy of a place under the shed I described, and that I should make no small figure among the quidnuncs of Olney….
From Selected English Letters (XV - XIX Centuries) by H. Wragg
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