Quiddity

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Quiddity \Quid"di*ty\, n.; pl. {Quiddities}. [LL. quidditas, fr.
     L. quid what, neut. of quis who, akin to E. who: cf. F.
     quiddit['e].]
     1. The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity, of a
        thing; that which answers the question, Quid est? or, What
        is it? " The degree of nullity and quiddity." --Bacon.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              The quiddity or characteristic difference of poetry
              as distinguished from prose.          --De Quincey.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. A trifling nicety; a cavil; a quibble.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              We laugh at the quiddities of those writers now.
                                                    --Coleridge.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  quiddity
       n 1: an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant
            distinctions or objections [syn: {quibble}, {cavil}]
       2: the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and
          makes it different from any other [syn: {haecceity}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  40 Moby Thesaurus words for "quiddity":
     axiom, cavil, center, core, dodge, elixir, essence, essential,
     flower, focus, fundamental, gist, gravamen, heart, hypostasis,
     inner essence, jesuitism, kernel, marrow, meat, nub, nucleus,
     nuts and bolts, pith, postulate, principle, quibble, quid, quillet,
     quintessence, quip, quirk, quodlibet, sap, shuffle, soul, spirit,
     stuff, substance, the nitty-gritty