quoddity
nounEtymology From Latin quod (“what”) + -ity.
1
Human sciences, Philosophy, Sciences The individual identity of something.
- 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――1744, A Dialogue Between the Rev. Mr. Jenkin Evans and Mr. Peter Dobson, concerning Bishops., London: M. Cooper, at the Globe in Pater-noſter-row, →OCLC, page 37: