Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The real nature of a thing; the essence.
  • noun A hairsplitting distinction; a quibble.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In scholastic philos., that which distinguishes a thing from other things, and makes it what it is, and not another; substantial form; nature.
  • noun A trifling nicety; a cavil; a quirk or quibble.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity, of a thing; that which answers the question, Quid est? or, What is it?
  • noun A trifling nicety; a cavil; a quibble.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The essence or inherent nature of a person or thing.
  • noun A trifle; a nicety or quibble
  • noun An eccentricity; an odd feature

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections
  • noun the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Medieval Latin quidditās, from Latin quid, what; see kwo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French quiddité, and its source, Late Latin quidditas, from Latin quid + -itas.

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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 2006

  • It has therefore been termed the quiddity of the thing.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability 1840-1916 1913

  • 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.

    Powell's Books: Overview 2009

  • 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.

    Amputee 2009

  • 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 2004

  • 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.

    2008 November | NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS 2008

  • 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.

    A conversation with William Deresiewicz’s article in The Nation…Following James Wood into the Desert… 2008

  • 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.

    2008 November 27 | NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS 2008

  • 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.

    1 The Journey To Huila « Unknowing 2010

  • 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).

    Sports 2009

  • The internet provides quick information: In three seconds I ascertain the meaning of quiddity—the inherent nature or essence of someone or something.

    On Writing: An Abecedarian | The Hudson Review Priscilla Long 2023

Comments

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  • On my contranym list. Meaning: niggling distinction vs. defining character of, i.e.,quintessence

    December 27, 2006

  • 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)."

    December 14, 2007

  • See also: my brother.

    December 14, 2007

  • I beg to differ.

    December 7, 2008

  • "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

    August 11, 2010

  • I feel like this is my stretch of English language highway to keep tidy for the year. So far, so good.

    September 9, 2015