quiddity
Pronunciation
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Pronunciation
- (British) IPA: /ˈkwɪdɪti/
quiddity (plural quiddities)
- (philosophy) The essence or inherent nature of a person or thing.
- 1822, October, Charles Lamb, The Old Actors, published in London Magazine, section on “Mr. Munden” (ebook ↗):
- 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.
- 1962, Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire:
- My vision reeked with truth. It had the tone,
- The quiddity and quaintness of its own
- Reality.
- 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 352:
- He represented my quiddity I suppose – the part which, thanks to you, has converted a black pessimism about life into a belief in cosmic absurdity.
- 1822, October, Charles Lamb, The Old Actors, published in London Magazine, section on “Mr. Munden” (ebook ↗):
- (legal) A trifle; a nicety or quibble.
- An eccentricity; an odd feature.
- (essence) nature, quintessence, whatness; See also Thesaurus:essence
- French: excentricité
- Spanish: peculiaridad
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002