I was reminded of contranyms when Matt sent me an email about the word quiddity which means both “essence” and “hairsplitting distinction.”.    From Wordnik.com.  [Rambles at starchamber.com » Blog Archive » Self-contradictory words] Reference

It has therefore been termed the quiddity of the thing.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 7: Gregory XII-Infallability] Reference

In search of quip and quiddity I've sat all day, alone, apart.    From Wordnik.com.  [Archive 2006-02-01] Reference

The quiddity of a thing is what makes it the sort of thing it is.    From Wordnik.com.  [You heard it here first ...] Reference

Lowebrow: The quiddity of bestsellers skip to main | skip to sidebar.    From Wordnik.com.  [The quiddity of bestsellers] Reference

Strictly speaking, therefore, quiddity is not applied to simple beings.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dietrich of Freiberg] Reference

The one comes to the other and does not fall within its definition or quiddity.    From Wordnik.com.  [William of Auvergne] Reference

(This went with the Jenkinian zest for rubbing one's nose in the mere quiddity.).    From Wordnik.com.  [Surprised by Joy]

Hence God's existence is not the same as what he is, or his quiddity, or nature.    From Wordnik.com.  [Nature and Grace: Selections from the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas] Reference

The oblique link is the title of this musical composition “It is what it is” = quiddity.    From Wordnik.com.  [11 « March « 2008 « Jahsonic] Reference

The quiddity of bestsellers occasionally has something to do with their oddity, I'm convinced.    From Wordnik.com.  [The quiddity of bestsellers] Reference

The quiddity, remit, and attendant rights of the private sphere are now determined publicly, by the state.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Encroachment of the Public] Reference

He finds them to be the quiddity of fascination one moment - and the distilled essence of boredom the next.    From Wordnik.com.  [Moral Deliberations in Modern Cinema] Reference

Of course quiddity presupposes ens and esse; without its existence there could be no determination of a thing.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dietrich of Freiberg] Reference

Suggesting that each instance of this somehow reveals the quiddity of either party is either dishonest or obtuse.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Grass Is Always More Uniformly Green on the Other Side] Reference

But we are now speaking of nature as it signifies the essence, or the "what-it-is," or the quiddity of the species.    From Wordnik.com.  [Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition] Reference

Strictly speaking, therefore, quiddity is found only in composite beings since it implies a formal aspect of a being.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dietrich of Freiberg] Reference

"For a brown man, exceptionally well, considering the quiddity of the circumstances in which we live; as I hope you will allow.".    From Wordnik.com.  [The Satanic Verses]

Each culture has its own quiddity, and I enjoy history and architecture, so Europe will always have its charms as a place to visit.    From Wordnik.com.  [Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » US vs. Europe: Standard of Living] Reference

Rizvi showed how later philosophers ascribed the ontological primacy of essence (or quiddity) thesis to Suhrawardi and noted that he.    From Wordnik.com.  [Suhrawardi] Reference

Unlike Aquinas Dietrich will not allow quiddity to designate the whole composite, even if the designation is understood to be abstract.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dietrich of Freiberg] Reference

Avicenna (Metaphysics III, the chapter on relation) says that a relation has its own quiddity distinct from the quiddity of its foundation.    From Wordnik.com.  [Medieval Theories of Relations] Reference

In everything having a quiddity it is thus necessary that there be a distinction between the quiddity and that which possesses the quiddity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dietrich of Freiberg] Reference

And so we need only consider these two works in order to discover his particular view of being, essence and quiddity that specifies his philosophical thinking.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dietrich of Freiberg] Reference

This is clear from its object, which is not this or that quiddity, but universally any quiddity and being as being, that is, whatever possesses the character of being.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dietrich of Freiberg] Reference

According to Dietrich quiddity is properly defined as the formal determination of a being, giving it its specific intrinsic character by means of which it can also be known.    From Wordnik.com.  [Dietrich of Freiberg] Reference

A thing's quiddity is: a. its real nature or essence.    From Wordnik.com.  [Blogposts | guardian.co.uk] Reference

In search of quip and quiddity I've sat all day alone, apart.    From Wordnik.com.  [The Book of Humorous Verse] Reference

He knew it well, and was cognizant with its every legal quiddity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Cousin Henry] Reference

The quiddity of the dollar store is its promise of a single, low price.    From Wordnik.com.  [AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed] Reference

Nature herself is MAYA; natural science must perforce deal with her ineluctable quiddity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Autobiography of a Yogi] Reference

Beethoven soft wondering close, after all the surges: 'He understands a leg of mutton in its quiddity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Figures of Several Centuries] Reference

Is not pun from Punic? punica fides: the very quint-essential quiddity of bad faith: double-visaged: double-tongued.    From Wordnik.com.  [Maid Marian] Reference

I think that he is right, and that the profitable study of a man is the study which regards him as an oddity, not a quiddity.    From Wordnik.com.  [Romance Two Lectures] Reference

But there you have in its quiddity the mediaeval mind: and the point I now put to you is, that out of this soil our Universities grew.    From Wordnik.com.  [X. English Literature in Our Universities (I)] Reference