quiddities

Noun

quiddity (countable and uncountable, plural quiddities)

1. The essence or inherent nature of a person or thing.
   • 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.October 1822, Charles Lamb, “The Old Actors”, in London Magazine, Mr. Munden

   Synonyms:

   nature

2. A trifle; a nicety or quibble.
3. An eccentricity; an odd feature.
   • 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...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