quiddity

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

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

From Middle English quidite, from Old French quidité, and its source, Late Latin quidditas, from Latin quid (“what”) + -itas (“-ness”).

Nature herself is MAYA; natural science must perforce deal with her ineluctable quiddity. — Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda
Old Doctor Sobersides, the minister of Pumpkinville, where I lived in my youth, was one of the metaphysical divines of the old school, and could cavil upon the ninth part of a hair about entities and quiddities, nominalism and realism, free-will and necessity, with which sort of learning he used to stuff his sermons and astound his learned hearers, the bumpkins. — The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886, Ontario. Department of Education
But he’ll arrest him tomorrow as an accessory—and the old lady with the knitting, too, I shouldn’t wonder.” “Well, I’m glad the little man has so much of an alibi,” said Lord Peter, “though if you’re only glueing your faith to cadaveric lividity, rigidity, and all the other quiddities, you must be prepared to have some sceptical beast of a prosecuting counsel walk slap-bang through the medical evidence. — Whose Body? A Lord Peter Wimsey Novel, Dorothy L. (Dorothy Leigh) Sayers

quibble, cavil

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