Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)

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First published 1990 (DOST Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

Quidité, -ie, Quidditie, n. [e.m.E. quiditie (a1536), quydditie (1539), schol. Lat. quidditas, also F. quiddité (14th c.).] Quiddity, in the usual senses. a. The real nature (of God); the essence (of anything). b. A subtlety in argument; a quibble. —a. 1490 Irland Mir. I 32/9.
And sene He js sa hie jn nature in His entite & deite mennis wyt may nocht cum to the perfit knawlage of His quidite and deite 1575 Bk. Univ. Kirk I 344.
Whither if the Kirk … hath power to cognosce and decern upon heresies, witchcraft [etc.] … especially upon the quiditie thereof; or whither if the criminal judge shall give sentence of death for such crimes, before the spiritual judge decerne upon the quidditie thereof —b. 1644 Baillie II 139.
But finding that all yet they brought was but velitations on quiddities the most was impatient of their wayes 1695 Fountainhall Decis. I 692.
To be overthrown on small quiddities and omissions in exact libelling