Nearby Words

qua

[kwey, kwah] Example Sentences Origin

qua

[kwey, kwah]
adverb
as; as being; in the character or capacity of: The work of art qua art can be judged by aesthetic criteria only.

Origin:
1640–50; < Latin quā feminine ablative singular of quī who
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Qua is always a great word to know.
So is ort. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
Example Sentences
  • The sine qua non of any reference book, however frivolous, is accuracy.
  • Pure objectivity not only is unattainable by humans qua humans but, also, countervails mankind's ultimate coping success.
  • Smugness, of course, is the sine qua non of Hollywood.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
qua (kweɪ, kwɑː)
 
prep
in the capacity of; by virtue of being
 
[C17: from Latin, ablative singular (feminine) of qui who]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

qua
"as, in the capacity of," 1647, from L. qua, abl. sing. fem. of qui "who," from PIE *kwo-, stem of relative and interrogative pronouns (cf. O.E. hwa "who," hwæt "what;" Goth. hvas "who;" Gk. posos "how much?").
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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