quodlibet
Americannoun
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a subtle or elaborate argument or point of debate, usually on a theological or scholastic subject.
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Music. a humorous composition consisting of two or more independent and harmonically complementary melodies, usually quotations of well-known tunes, played or sung together, usually to different texts, in a polyphonic arrangement.
noun
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a light piece of music based on two or more popular tunes
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a subtle argument, esp one prepared as an exercise on a theological topic
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of quodlibet
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Medieval Latin noun quodlibētum “whatever subject you like,” from Latin indefinite pronoun and adjective quod libet “what(ever) pleases, as you please”
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.
Maybe it was the night’s full moon, but what are the odds that this concerto, which not only quotes a spiritual, ends with the obscure Baroque form of a quodlibet?
From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 6, 2017
Et habet quodlibet millenariorum in his vestibus colorem sibi proprium: primum viridem, secundum vermiculum, tertium croceum, quartum purpureum, seu indicum.
From The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation — Volume 08 Asia, Part I by Hakluyt, Richard
Our matter is quodlibet indeed, though wrongly performing Ovid's verse, Quicquid conabar dicere versus erat: never marshalling it into an assured rank, that almost the readers cannot tell where to find themselves.
From English literary criticism by Various
Huic pro suâ integritate, de Clotario cùm meliùs meliùsque in dies promereretur, reliqui aulici invident, depravantes quodlibet ab eo gestum, nec desistunt donec irritatum illi Clotarium pessimis susurris efficiunt; quamobrem jurat Rex se hominem necaturum.
From Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 1 by Turner, Dawson
Accordingly, for the sake of the equine quodlibet, he wanted to bid in my miserable sorrel, who, to tell the truth, wore nowhere any hair of his own, except behind on the bob.
From Hesperus or Forty-Five Dog-Post-Days Vol. II A Biography by Jean Paul
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.
