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Nicety vs Quiddity - What's the difference?

nicety | quiddity |

As nouns the difference between nicety and quiddity

is that nicety is a small detail or distinction while quiddity is (philosophy) the essence or inherent nature of a person or thing.

nicety

English

Noun

(niceties)
  • A small detail or distinction.
  • We met the new captain while we were taking enemy fire and were unable to observe the niceties of formal introductions.
  • * John Locke
  • the fineness and niceties of words
  • Subtlety or precision of use.
  • :A rocket-propelled grenade doesn't have the nicety of a sniper round, but you must admit its effectiveness.
  • Derived terms

    * to a nicety

    quiddity

    Noun

    (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.
  • (legal) A trifle; a nicety or quibble.
  • An eccentricity; an odd feature.
  • Synonyms

    * (essence) nature, quintessence, whatness

    Derived terms

    * quidditative

    Coordinate terms

    * (essence) quality

    See also

    *