Colonial Sense: Society-Lifestyle: Colonial Dictionary

Word	Definition
Quaestuary	Pertaining to profit, moneymaking. Latin quaerere, quaestum (querere, questum, whence query, question), to seek. In his FABLES (1694) Roger L'Estrange refers to the lawyers, the divines, and all quaestuary professions.
Quaff	To drink deeply, take a long draught; especially, to drain a cup at a draught. Used since the 16th century; William Shakespeare says, in THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1596): quaft off the muscadell. Quaff up that bitter cup of affliction, Bishop Joseph Hall (1633) urged himself; but Thomas Dekker in THE WHORE OF BABYLON (1607) more gaily exclaimed: I quaffe full bowles of strong enchanting wines.
Quaint	I As an adjective. The earliest sense of quaint (coint, coynte, qwaynt, and more) was wise, ingenious; also, crafty, cunning. Then it was used to mean elegant, especially in speech; clever; also cleverly wrought, hence beautiful. It is via Old French cointe (quointe, cuinte) from Latin cognitum, known; cognoscere, to know; whence also cognition', cp. coint. Its use lapsed about 1650; it was revived about 1800, mainly in its present sense. II As a noun. (1) A woman's private parts. Chaucer sought no euphemism, in THE MILLER'S TALE (1386) ; he bluntly says: Pryvely he caught her by the queynte. The O.E.D. in Victorian innocence queries whether this is from the adjective, but it is a different word, being a variant form of the common English word, akin to Latin cunnus; Burton in his translation (1886) of THE ARABIAN NIGHTS spells it coynte. From the adjective, however, does come the sense, not in O.E.D., of (2) a clever trick; a cunning device. In HANDLYNG SYNNE (cp. sigalder; slop), the bishop, looking at the magic bag, commands the witch: 'Dame', seyd the bysshop, 'do thy quentyse, And late us se how hit shall ryse'. Thys wycche here charme began to sey, The slop ros up, and yede the weye.
Quair	An early (mainly Scotch) form of (1) where. (2) quire. This may be a variant of choir, as in Shakespeare's SONNET 73 (1592): Bare ruin'd quires, where late the sweet birds sang and in John Milton's IL PENSOROSO (1632): There let the pealing organ blow To the full-voiced quire below. Choir is roundabout from Greek choros, company of singers or dancers. More often (from the 13th century) quire, quair (Old French caier, French cahier; Latin quaterni, set of four; quattuor, four) was a set of four sheets of parchment or paper, folded to form eight leaves; by extension, a pamphlet or booklet; then, a poem or prose piece short enough to fit in a quire. The best known work of this sort is The Kingis Quair (1423), by James I of Scotland.
Quarrel	(1) An early form of quarrer, quarry, a place from which stone is obtained. Ultimately from Latin quadrus, square, four-sided; quattuor, four. From the same source came (2) quarrel, quarry, a short, square-headed arrow or bolt, used with the cross-bow and the arbalest. Also a square needle (15th century; for fishhooks); a square or diamond pane of glass (in lattice windows, 15th to 17th century); a four-sided tile; pavements in the 17th century might be wrought checkerwise with small square quarels. When persons seek to avoid a quarrel, the word is via Old French quereler from Latin querela, complaint, queri, to complain, whence both querulous and quarrelsome; querulation, querullng, the act of complaining; querulist, an habitual complainer; querulental, querulential, querelous, querulous, peevish; querulity, querulosity, a spirit of complaining. These should not be confused with forms from Latin quaerere, to ask, seek; quaestio, question, whence also request, questionable. In THE OBSERVER (No. 103; 1785), Cumberland spoke of a lady rather captious and querulental. Touchstone in THE TRIFLER (1788) averred: I have carefully examined the various subjects of complaint . . . If my third fair querulist . . .
Quarrier	Quarry worker
Quay	To subdue, daunt. Probably a variant of quail. Used by Edmund Spenser in THE FAERIE QUEENE (1590): Therewith his sturdie corage soon was quayd, And all his senses were with sudden dread dismayed.
Queach	A thicket, a dense growth of bushes. Also queche. Hence queachy, thickly grown but also used (George Peele, EDWARD I, 1593; Michael Drayton, POLYOLBION, 1622) to mean swampy, sodden. MERLIN (1450) told that thei rode so longe till thei com to a thikke queche in a depe valey.
Quean	A woman; but in early Middle English the word developed disreputable implications; it was very common in the 16th and 17th centuries, meaning a hussy, a strumpet. The Gothic qino, woman, is related to Zend gena, Greek gyne, whence gynecology. The well-known drinking song in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL (1777) has the lines: Here's to the flaunting extravagant quean And here's to the housewife that's thrifty. Walter Scott revived the innocent sense of the word, referring to a robust young woman, as in ROB ROY (1818): It shows a kind heart . . . in sae young a quean; Mattie's a carefu' lass. For further instances, see Bawdreaminy.
Qued	Evil, wicked. A most common word; also, cwead, quead, kuead, cwed, queyd, quethe. As a noun, a wicked or evil person; especially, the Devil. Hence, evil, harm. Also quedhead, quedness, quedship, evil.
Queme	To please, gratify; to act so as to please; to be acceptable; to be suitable; to appease. Used from the 8th century; John Palsgrave in 1530 says I queme . . . This worde is now out of use. Edmund Spenser, when in THE SHEPHERD'S CALENDAR (1579; MAY) he wrote Such merimake holy saints doth queme, felt it necessary to write 'please' in a gloss. The form in Middle High German was bequaeme, it is fitting; English it becomes me, as in Mourning Becomes Electra by Eugene O'Neill. We still say becoming, but we have forgotten queme. The word was also used as an adjective, meaning pleasing, agreeable; of pleasing appearance, beautiful, smooth (of the ocean); fit, fitting, convenient, handy; friendly, well disposed.
Quenelle	A ball of meat or fish, made into a paste, cooked, well seasoned. V. Stuart in EGYPT (1883) enjoyed savoury quenelles of mutton enveloped in fennel leaves.
Quern	A hand-mill; usually two circular stones, the upper one turned by hand. For grinding corn; also, pepper-quern, mustard-quern. From the 10th century; used by Chaucer (1374) and William SHakespeare in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (1596) when a fairy queries Puck: Are you not he That frights the maidens of the villagery, Skim milk, and sometimes labor in the quern And bootless make the breathless housewife churn? Josuah Sylvester uses the mill as an image for the teeth, in his translation (1591) of Du Bartas: Two equail ranks of orient pearls . . . quernlike grinding small th' imperfect food. There was also a quern-chant, quern-song, song of the miller.
Quernal	Relating to the oak, oak-leaves, or acorns. Latin quernus, from quercus, oak. In his ANIMADVERSIONS (1599) Thynne refers to the quernall crowne gyven to those which had saved a cytyzen.
Quest	(1) A body of persons appointed to make an inquiry or inquest, a jury. William Shakespeare uses this figuratively, in SONNET 46 (1600): To side this title is impanelled A quest of thoughts, all tennant to the heart. Hence, from the number in such a quest, twelve. AN ALMOND FOR A PARRAT(1589): Ile have a spare fellowe shall make mee a whole quest of faces for three farthings. A questman, a member of a quest; questmonger (disreputable), one that made a business of serving on a quest or of conducting inquests. Quest was frequently used as a short form for inquest. (2) The side of an oven. A pie was quested when its side was crushed against the oven or another pie, or so pressed as to be less well baked.
Questrist	One that is seeking, goes in quest of. William Shakespeare in KING LEAR (1605) tells that thirty of his knights, Hot questrists after him, met him at gate.
Queth	To speak, declare. Also, a speech, a sound. Used from the 9th to the 16th century. Also quethe, queythe. The past of queth was quoth, sometimes still used to give an archaic effect (usually followed by the subject, quoth the colonel); quotha was short for quoth he, he said; also quodha, catha. Sometimes quotha was used in scorn, meaning forsooth! indeed! The phrase alive and quething meant alive and able to speak; when quething was forgotten, folk-practice changed the phrase to alive and kicking. In the 14th century, quething was used for bequeathing; a quethe word was a bequest, a quething word was a last farewell.
Quibble	As a noun. A play upon words. From this sense of quibble came the second sense, as still in the verb, to quibble, to indulge in purely verbal argument, to avoid the issue by a turn of phrases. A quip was originally a sharp or sarcastic remark; later, any clever turn of words, as in John Milton's L'ALLEGRO (1632): Quips and cranks and wanton wiles. Both quip and quibble are probably from quib, which is a shortening of Latin quibus, 'from which things' (it can be seen, etc.). The word quibus occurred frequently in legal documents, hence came to be used of the verbal aspects of the legal mind. (In French, quibus was used to mean money, 'the wherewithal'; in Dutch, kwibus, a fool.) Johnson, in his Preface to Shakespeare (1765) said: A quibble is to Shakespeare what luminous vapour is to the traveller; he follows it at all adventures; it is sure to lead him out of the way and sure to engulf him in the mire.
Quick	Living. Frequent in phrases: quick cattle, quick beast, also figuratively, as the quick (fertile) earth. A quick fence is a hedge of living plants. Also quick coals, live, burning; quick spring, flowing; quick steel, brittle. It survives as a noun in the quick and the dead (The BIBLE: ACTS). Cp. wizard.
Quiddany	A thick fruit jelly -- thicker than a syrup, said a guide of 1616, and not so thick nor stiff as marmalade. Originally, a quince preserve (Latin cydonia, quince) ; also called quindiniac; quiddanet, quidony; codinac, codigny, a quince marmalade; cotiniate, a marmalade or confection of quinces. In the 18th century, quiddany was a general term for any fruit syrup or jelly. Hence to quiddany, to make into jelly, used figuratively in Nathaniel Ward's THE SIMPLE COBLER OF AGAWAM in America (1647): He will . . . quidanye Christ with sugar and ratsbane.
Quiddity	(1) The essence of a thing. Formed with the ending -ity from quid (Latin, what), used also in English, meaning that which a thing is. (2) A thing intangible or nameless. (3) A subtlety in argument; subtlety in wit. The third meaning sprang from the frequency of scholastic arguments on the quiddity (essence) of things. Also quiddit and, by alteration, quillity and quillet. William Shakespeare in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1588) speaks of some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the divell. Also Thomas Urquhart has, in his translation (1653) of Francois Rabelais: One of them would call it . . . her staffe of love, her quillety. Still another variant appeared in Edward Guilpin's SKIALETHEIA (1598): Then whats a wench but a quirke, quidlit case, Which makes a painters pallat of her face? A line in W. S. Gilbert's PATIENCE (1881) runs: To stuff his conversation full of quibble and of quiddity. Also quiddative, quidditative, pertaining to the essence of a thing; full of equivocations; quirky.
Quidnunc	(1) An inquisitive person; one that is constantly inquiring Quid nunc? (Latin: What now?) (2) A curiosity, someone or something to be talked about. Used from the 18th century, as by Richard Steele in THE TATLER (1709); still occasionally employed in satire. Speaking of Pinero's THE IRONMASTER (1884) adapted from Ohnet's LE MAÎTRE DES FORGES of the year before, M. W. Disher in MELODRAMA (1954) said: It was gloomy and that made it fashionable, for the new intellectual drama which quidnuncs talked about would of course be gloomy -- the drama of ideas from "The Robbers" to "Leah" always had been because it had always come from the other side of the Rhine where brains worked solemnly.
Quincunx	An arrangement of trees or other objects so that four mark the corners and one the center of a rectangle; an orchard may be a joined series of such quincunxes. Also quincunce; Latin quinque, five + uncia, ounce, one-twelfth; literally, five-twelfths; dots arranged in a quincunx signified five-twelfths of an as. [The original unit of currency at Rome, the as, was -- with many later modifications -- a bar of bronze weighing one Roman pound, twelve ounces.] Hence also quincunxial, more commonly quincuncial.
Quintain	(1) A tilting post. Common in medieval knightly training, in 17th and 18th century country sports at weddings. Described in William Toone's GLOSSARY (1834): "An upright post was fixed to the ground, having at the top a movable figure of a man, holding a shield . . . and at the other end a heavy sand bag; the player rode or run at full speed and attempted to strike the figure, which, if not done dexterously, he was struck and overthrown by a blow from the sandbag." Toone suggests that the word is from British gwyntyn, a vane. The O.E.D. traces it to Latin quintus, fifth, the grounds of the fifth division of the Roman legion being used for military exercises. Also quintayne, qwaintan, quyntyne, quinten, quintan, and the like. Also quintal, quintel, quintil. William Shakespeare, in AS YOU LIKE IT (1600) says: That which here stands up Is but a quintine, a meere liveless blocke. (2) A variant of quentin or quintin (St. Quentin in Picardy; Quintin, in Brittany, France) a kind of linen or lawn. (3) A stanza of five lines, usually called a cinquain.
Quipu	The communications system or device of ancient Peru. Also quipo, quippu, quippo; Quichan quipu, knot. An arrangement of knotted and colored cords, that transmitted messages, and recorded such items as population, crops, number of workers, and tribute. Thomas Carlyle remarked (1830) that history has been written -with quipo-threads, with feather pictures, with wampum-belts. The quipu system never attained the status of writing, unlike the neighboring hieroglyphics of the Maya -- who also computed time accurately back some ninety million years, and set one date at 400 million years ago. They achieved this a thousand years before Archbishop Ussher (1581-1656) calculated that the creation of the world occurred 4004 B.C., which date for a long time after his determination was printed in the Authorized Version of the BIBLE.
Quisquilious	Made up of rubbish. Also quisquilian, quisquiliary. From Latin quisquiliae, odds and ends; quisque, whatever it may be. Used since the 18th century. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, in a travesty of Thomas Urquhart (1817), railed against those shallow and fidimplicitary coxcombs, who fill our too credulous ears with their quisquiliary deblaterations. FRASER'S MAGAZINE (1857) more soberly ventured into ornithology: The jay's diet is sufficiently quisquilious. Also see Nugacity.
Quisquous	Hard to handle, ticklish. Also quisquose, quiscos, quiscoskos. Used in Scotland in the 18th and 19th centuries; we read in TAIT'S MAGAZINE for 1856: the ladies maybe a wee quiscoskos.
Quitrent	A sum paid in lieu of services due, as in feudal times. Often used figuratively, as by Cowper in TABLE TALK (1782): The courtly laureate pays His quitrent ode, his peppercorn of praise.
Quiver	Nimble, quick. Shakespeare in HENRY IV, PART TWO (1597) says: There was a little quiver fellow, and a' would manage his piece thus. From the noun quiver, a case for arrows, came a verbal form, as in John Milton's COMUS (1654): Like a quiver'd nymph with arrows keen. The form quiverful was often used figuratively, meaning many, echoing the BIBLE: PSALM 127: As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them.
Quiz	In use in the 1700s, but it did not mean a small test until the middle of the nineteenth century. For about a hundred years before that, the noun quiz meant an odd person or thing. Its verb form meant "to make fun of." It is rumored to have been invented by a Dublin theater proprietor who, having made a bet that a nonsense word could be made known within 48 hours throughout the city, and that the public would give it a meaning, had the word written up on walls all over the city. There is no evidence to support this theory.
Quodlibetarian	(1) One who does as he pleases, or believes in doing as one pleases. (2) One who indulges in or discusses quodlibets. A quodlibet was a question (usually in philosophy or religion) posed as an exercise in argument; hence, to do quodlibets, to argue, to advance or present a thesis. Latin quod, what + libet, pleases. Also quodlibetist, quodlibetary; the latter term was applied either to the arguer or to the argument. To deal in such matters (i.e., to quibble) was, in the 18th century, to quodlibetificate (accent, naturally, on the tiff). Adjectives were quodlibetal, quodlibetic, quodlibetical.
Quondam	Former; that used to be. Directly from the Latin; in the 16th century, also condam. Often used in the 16th century, as by Hugh Latimer in his FOURTH SERMON BEFORE KING EDWARD VI (1549): Make them quondammes, out with them, cast them out of ther office! Hence quondamship, the condition of being out of office (also in Latimer's FOURTH SERMON). William Shakespeare in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (1588) says: I did converse this quondam day with a companion of the kings. Ruskin in FORS CLAVIGERA (1874) sighed over the loquacious and speculative disposition . . . of all my quondam friends.
Quooke	An old variant of quaked, past tense of to quake. Chaucer used quok, quoke; Edmund Spenser in MUTABILITY (1596) tells that Jove shooke His nectar-deawed locks, with which the skyes And all the earth beneath for terror quooke, And eft his burning levin-brond in hand he tooke.
Quop	To throb, quiver, palpitate. Also quab, quag; earlier quap. Chaucer in TROYLUS AND CRISEYDE (1374) has: And lord how that his herte gan to quappe, Heryng her come. John Dryden (1679) also said My heart quops. As a noun quab, quob meant (1) a shapeless thing, as an ill-written work; Ford in THE LOVER'S MELANCHOLY (1628) spoke of a trifle of mine own brain ... a scholar's fancy, a quab; 'tis nothing else, a very quab. (2) A quagmire, a marshy spot, also a quag. The verb to quag, to quiver, is used of flabby flesh "or a great dug."

Colonial Dictionary

Colonial Dictionary

Quaestuary

Quaff

Quaint

Quair

Quarrel

Quarrier

Quay

Queach

Quean

Qued

Queme

Quenelle

Quern

Quernal

Quest

Questrist

Queth

Quibble

Quick

Quiddany

Quiddity

Quidnunc

Quincunx

Quintain

Quipu

Quisquilious

Quisquous

Quitrent

Quiver

Quiz

Quodlibetarian

Quondam

Quooke

Quop