quid
/kwɪd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.32 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A member of a section of the Democratic-Republican Party between 1805 and 1811, following John Randolph of Roanoke. (From tertium quid.)
American usage
noun
Paired with quo, in reference to the phrase quid pro quo (“this for that”): something offered in exchange for something else.
noun
A sovereign or guinea, that is, a certain coin or amount of money.
Example Sentences
- "[…]; but what is the quo for which they ought to give the quid? you say they ought to give a quid pro quo; what is the quo? […]; did not they give you a pretty handsome quid for the quo there?"
- "Indeed, asymmetry precludes the possibility of pointing to any particular quo that is meant to recompense the quid. […]If there exists any kind of inequity between quid and quo, then—on this line of argument—the expansive category of “friendship” emerges to account for it, siphoning the situation away from the class of objectionable quid pro quo. The claim officials here make—that for a quid to have a quo there must be some equivalency between the two—draws theoretical sustenance from the objective, exclusionary approach that critics of classical contract law apply to disproportionate exchanges."
- "Corruption, the Court declared in Buckley v. Valeo, involves a quid pro quo: an officeholder doing something in office in return for money or some other favor provided by another individual or entity (for our purposes, a corporation). The problem, however, is that in principle there can be a quid—the money or favor offered by the business to the official—and a quo—the action taken by the official that benefits the business—without any clear evidence of a pro, that is, that the two are connected.[…]The “pro,” the connection between quid and quo, might take place only inside the minds of the official and businessperson concerned."
- "It is hard to pull off a quid pro quo if the holder of the quo doesn’t know about the quid."
- "Seven quid for a toastie? Are you taking the mick?!"
- "They invited him to come to-morrow, […] and bring half a quid with him."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: quid, quide, cwidu
Usage
- American usage
- British usage
- Colloquial