quid·di·ty /ˈkwɪdəti/
 本質,實質,詭辯,怪癖,遯辭


 Quid·di·ty n.; pl. Quiddities
 1. The essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity, of a thing; that which answers the question, Quid est? or, What is it? “ The degree of nullity and quiddity.”
    The quiddity or characteristic difference of poetry as distinguished from prose.   --De Quincey.
 2. A trifling nicety; a cavil; a quibble.
    We laugh at the quiddities of those writers now.   --Coleridge.

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 quiddity
      n 1: an evasion of the point of an argument by raising irrelevant
           distinctions or objections [syn: quibble, cavil]
      2: the essence that makes something the kind of thing it is and
         makes it different from any other [syn: haecceity]