Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The real nature of a thing; the essence.
- n. A hairsplitting distinction; a quibble.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In scholastic philos., that which distinguishes a thing from other things, and makes it what it is, and not another; substantial form; nature.
- n. A trifling nicety; a cavil; a quirk or quibble.
Wiktionary
- n. The essence or inherent nature of a person or thing.
- n. A trifle; a nicety or quibble
- n. An eccentricity; an odd feature
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity, of a thing; that which answers the question,
Quid est ? or, What is it? - n. A trifling nicety; a cavil; a quibble.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections
- n. the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other
Etymologies
- From Middle French quiddité, and its source, Late Latin quidditas, from Latin quid + -itas. (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin quidditās, from Latin quid, what; see kwo- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I was reminded of contranyms when Matt sent me an email about the word quiddity which means both “essence” and “hairsplitting distinction.””
Rambles at starchamber.com » Blog Archive » Self-contradictory words
“It has therefore been termed the quiddity of the thing.”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability
“A novelist's ultimate achievement is to enable us to know a character so well that we catch a glimpse of his inviolable unknowability, his singular quiddity -- in other words, though Wood doesn't use the term, his soul.”
“The real but initially hidden starting point for Bonaventure's ontological argument in the Journey is the notion of esse purissimum, taken not subjectively as existing as a concept in a human mind, but in its objective meaning, [63] that is, as signifying a certain kind of quiddity or essence.”
“This may be expressed in the form of the apophatic theology of an Ibn Sina or Maimonides or Nicholas of Cusa: Ibn Sina (like Aquinas and all that flows from him) insists that there can be no answer to the question, 'What makes God divine?' as if some 'quiddity' could be identified that grounded a divine definition.”
'Analysing Atheism; Unbelief and the world of Faiths' Georgetown University, Washington DC
“A novelist’s ultimate achievement is to enable us to know a character so well that we catch a glimpse of his inviolable unknowability, his singular quiddity – in other words, though Wood doesn’t use the term, his soul.”
“The quiddity of a terminal is smarm, or perhaps a smarmy hustling: sweating, fat men counting bills with strange intensity under a light besieged by insects.”
“I even prefer it over college basketball, (although I think the two are apples and oranges, but that's another post: the ontological quiddity of pro vs. college b-ball).”
“Embassytown" might be called the culmination of these interests: For his eighth novel he has created a new city on a new world in a new universe, one underpinned by the immer, a "big and tidal quiddity" where normal rules of space and time do not apply and which ships cross to travel between planets.”
“Each culture has its own quiddity, and I enjoy history and architecture, so Europe will always have its charms as a place to visit.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » US vs. Europe: Standard of Living
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘quiddity’.
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-dity
absurdity, acidity, acridity, algidity, aridity, bifidity, calidity, commodity, crudity, discommodity, facundity, fecundity and 93 more...
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New words
new words or spelling issues
voluble, Metagrobolize, salubrious, calumny, fugacity, withdrawal, bourse, hypertrophy, leitmotif, argot, improvident, damask and 241 more...
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phrontistery - q
from phrontistery.info
qanat, qasida, qat, qigong, qintar, qiviut, qoph, qua, quab, quackle, quacksalver, quad and 227 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Knee Deep in Chic
Words, prose, bon mots, and literary styles that cause a contagious enthusiasm by its very existence. They can be muses to a story. rekindling the spark that went out. The cure-all elixir to a bla...
euphuism, quiddity, saudade, zugzwang, razbliuto, parti pris, oleaginous, crevasse, chantepleure, chiaroscuro, prestidigitation, dysphemism and 79 more...
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Favorite Words
pablum, maundy, histrionic, adamant, ascribe, verbiage, insouciant, erudite, gregarious, superfluous, banal, obdurate and 280 more...
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catinthehat345's List
compere, reticle, colophon, miasma, eldritch, raconteur, plectrum, poltroon, vestibular, pastiche, cravat, acumen and 179 more...
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i like
words to use, memorize, lavish with my affections
empyreal, quiddity, esthetic, crepitation, dénouement, feuilleton, macule, napthalene, förutse, verdure, montane, decalcomania and 105 more...
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Logodaedalus' Lexical Locutionary
Discombobulating the illiterate since the middle of the last century.
adiaphora, agitprop, alliteration, apophthegm, autarky, bête noire, bezoar, biorhythm, braggadocio, canaille, confabulate, confrère and 332 more...
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Nabokov vocabulary
verisimilitude, geminate, pedantic, intervestibular, equilibrist, nictitating, anastomosis, quiddity, torus, cacahuete, undulation, pensum and 135 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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litigious semantics
ad unguem, abeyance, choleric, contentious, curmudgeonly, churlish, dictatorial, vindictive, dogmatic, truculent, mutinous, refractory and 254 more...
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lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 887 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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Interesting Scrabble words
Interesting words worth @ least 15 points.
smoochy, zareba, hyphal, djellaba, cloque, pyxidium, qindarka, squiffy, howbeit, chthonic, quinta, azimuthal and 262 more...
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pword
vexatious, verdigris, variegated, diatribe, vicissitude, conflagration, plurality, paragon, charlatan, panacea, sycophant, plenitude and 347 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for quiddity.

jaime_d "or a giant grampus, baiting Jonah, trapping Cain, haunting Ahab; all avatars of that vital quiddity which no ocular straining will pull into focus. . ." Gilbert Adair translation of Georges Perec's La Disparition Aug 11, 2010
smeggo I beg to differ. Dec 7, 2008
reesetee See also: my brother. Dec 14, 2007
dstrassel Oxford University Press philosophy dictionary provides an alternative definition:
"The real essence or nature of a thing; that which makes it the kind of thing that it is (sometimes opposed to haecceity which makes it the particular individual that it is)." Dec 14, 2007
oroboros On my contranym list. Meaning: niggling distinction vs. defining character of, i.e.,quintessence Dec 27, 2006