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Quiddity
Definitions
- 1 The essence or inherent nature of a person or thing. countable, uncountable
"A tub of butter, contemplated by him, amounts to a Platonic idea. He understands a leg of mutton in its quiddity. He stands wondering, amid the commonplace materials of life, like primæval man, with the sun and stars about him."
- 2 the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and makes it different from any other wordnet
- 3 A trifle; a nicety or quibble. countable, uncountable
- 4 an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant distinctions or objections wordnet
- 5 An eccentricity; an odd feature. countable, uncountable
"They have ſwallowed and digeſted all the Fathers, the Codes, Provincials, Decretals, Pandects, Councils, Canons ; are Maſters of all the Schoolmen, not to fill their Heads and ſtuff their Writings with Quiddities and Quoddities, and far-fetched unintelligible Diſtinctions, but to be able to reaſon cloſely, to argue ſolidly, to rebuke, to confute, to reply, to rejoind, to ſyllogize, to criticize, to apologize, to advertize, to ſermonize, to decypherize, to――"
Etymology
From Middle English quidite, from Old French quidité, and its source, Late Latin quidditas, from Latin quid (“what”) + -itas (“-ness”).
See also for "quiddity"
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