quid pro quibus

Noun

quid pro quo (plural quae pro quibus or quid pro quibus or quid pro quos)

1. Something which is understood as something else; an equivocation.
   • The misunderstanding of the word or the quid pro quo is the unintentional pun, and is related to it exactly as folly is to wit.1844, Arthur Schopenhauer, translated by Richard Burdon Haldane, The World as Will and Representation, 2nd edition, first book, translation of original in German, section 13
2. (historical) Substitution of one drug for another.
   • a knave Apothecary that administers the Physick, and makes the medicine, may doe infinite harme, by his old obsolete doses, adulterine druggs, bad mixtures, quid pro quo, etc.1621-51, Robert Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy
3. Something which is offered or asked for in exchange for something else.
   • To deny that the arrangement was a quid pro quo would be laughably disingenuous.
4. A usually non-monetary exchange transaction, or series or process of exchange transactions.
   • More importantly, the Chrysler bailout produced a quid pro quo wherein Congress agreed to pass bank deregulation legislation if banks agreed to convert substantial amounts of Chrysler's debt to equity.1997, Davita Silfen Glasberg, Daniel L. Skidmore, Corporate Welfare Policy and the Welfare State, page 138
   1. An equal or fair transaction or series of process of exchange transactions; tit for tat.
      • Mr. P. did not consider that branch, strictly and technically speaking, public revenue; at least it did not arise from taxation, because those persons who had paid this money had received a full equivalent for the same; there was a quid pro quo on both sides; and this was not taxation, it was a...1837, United States. Congress, The Congressional Globe, page 1977
5. Sexual harassment in which a person in a workplace implicitly or explicitly requires sexual favours in exchange for something.
   • A quid pro quo complaint typically is lodged by an employee who has been denied opportunities because he or she refused a perpetrator's sexual advances or by an employee who has been denied opportunities because another employee obtained those opportunities by submitting to a perpetrator's sexual...2008, Ronald W. Scott, Promoting Legal and Ethical Awareness, page 140

   Synonyms:

   QPQ