quid
Pluralquids, quid
Pluralquids, quid
- 1A pound sterling; usually used only for whole numbers of pounds.
He sold his old bike to a mate for fifty quid.
It costs a quid to use the toilets at the station, would you believe.
UsageThe plural is usually quid: fifty quid. The -s stays in quids in, meaning better off after a deal.
Note
The word is relaxed rather than rude, and Nick Hornby's High Fidelity (1995) shows it sitting easily beside the plainer word, with a fifteen-quid fare and bitter at two pounds a pint.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Nick Hornby wrote High Fidelity. en.wikipedia.org
- High Fidelity was first published in 1995. openlibrary.org
- The novel places a fifteen-quid ride beside bitter costing two pounds a pint. en.wiktionary.org
- 2Something offered in exchange for something else, used with quo in a play on the phrase quid pro quo.
Investigators could find the quid (a large donation) but not the quo it supposedly bought.
Every trade deal has a quid and a quo, and the argument is usually over which side gives more.
Note
Writers pull the Latin phrase apart and use each half as a noun: the quid is what is given, the quo what it buys. Both halves usually appear, as in John Yoo's Defender in Chief (2020): "hard to pull off a quid pro quo if the holder of the quo doesn't know about the quid." Its home ground is writing on politics and corruption.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts
- John Yoo wrote Defender in Chief, published in 2020. en.wikipedia.org
- The quoted wording occurs in Yoo's Defender in Chief; it excerpts a sentence beginning “It is hard”. en.wiktionary.org
- 3A piece of material to be chewed, especially a lump of chewing tobacco.
The ballplayer shifted his quid to the other cheek and stepped up to the plate.
She cut a quid from the plug and offered it to the driver.
Note
Cud is the same word in another spelling: both come from Old English cwidu, "that which is chewed", so a sailor's quid of tobacco and a cow's cud are relatives, while the money word is a stranger to both. In Stevenson's Treasure Island, Israel Hands begs Jim to cut him a quid from a stick of tobacco.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- Cud and the tobacco word quid are forms of the same inherited word. en.wiktionary.org
- Both descend from Old English cwidu, glossed as that which is chewed. en.wiktionary.org
- The money word quid has a separate etymology. en.wiktionary.org
- Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Treasure Island. gutenberg.org
- Israel Hands asks Jim to cut him a quid from a stick of tobacco. gutenberg.org
Less common meanings
- 4To chew tobacco.
Ah! the pig-tailed, quidding pirates and the pretty pranks we played
1902, John Masefield, A Ballad of John SilverSimilarchew
- 5The activity of chewing tobacco, as distinct from the wad being chewed.
- 6Outside the UK, especially in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, a unit of the local currency: formerly a pound, now sometimes a euro or a dollar.
Back in the early sixties, a quid went a long way in a Sydney pub.
When the Irish pound was replaced, people still had a few old quid tucked away in drawers.
Note
Wherever a currency was called the pound, the slang went with it, so the Irish pound and the pounds of Commonwealth countries were quid too. Most of those pounds are gone, which makes this use largely historical, but the word sometimes moved on to the money that replaced them: the euro in Ireland and, more rarely, the dollar.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- The Irish, Australian and New Zealand pounds have been replaced, but pounds outside the UK have not all disappeared. The Falkland Islands pound remains a currency and is nicknamed quid. en.wikipedia.org
- In Ireland, quid transferred from the pound to its replacement, the euro. en.wikipedia.org
- Quid also extended, more rarely, to dollars. en.wiktionary.org
- 7A sovereign or a guinea, either as a coin or as that amount of money.
Note
Nobody knows for sure where the money word came from, though one common guess links it to quid pro quo, the thing handed over in exchange for goods or services. In this older use the coin was a sovereign or a guinea, so when Charles Reade's Put Yourself in His Place (1870) invites someone to bring "half a quid", half of one is meant. Today the slang names the pound.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 8 facts
- The origin of the monetary word is unknown. en.wikipedia.org
- Derivation from quid pro quo is a proposed etymology. en.wiktionary.org
- Quid pro quo refers to something exchanged for goods or services. en.wikipedia.org
- Quid historically meant a sovereign or a guinea, including the corresponding amount. en.wiktionary.org
- Charles Reade wrote Put Yourself in His Place, first published in book form in 1870. gutenberg.org
- The book's first publication year was 1870. gutenberg.org
- The novel describes an invitation to bring exactly 'half a quid'; this is narration, not dialogue spoken by Reade. gutenberg.org
- In the historical coin sense, half a quid means half the corresponding monetary amount. gutenberg.org
- 8The essential nature of something; what a thing inherently is.
- 9A member of a faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that followed John Randolph of Roanoke between 1805 and 1811; the name comes from tertium quid.
- 10Of a horse, to let food drop from the mouth while chewing.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
Latin quis ("who") has the neuter singular form quid ("what, something"), and English borrowed that form.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Latin quis means "who". en.wiktionary.org
- Quid, meaning "what, something", is the neuter singular form of Latin quis. en.wiktionary.org
- English borrowed Latin quid. en.wiktionary.org
This sense probably grew out of quid pro quo ("this for that"), with the idea of paying cash in return for goods or services.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The currency sense of quid probably derives from quid pro quo, referring to exchanging money for goods or services. en.wiktionary.org
- Quid pro quo can be translated as “this for that”. en.wikipedia.org
Old English cwidu, cwudu, meaning "that which is chewed" or "cud," became Middle English quide, quede. Cud is a doublet.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Quid derives from Middle English quide, quede, from Old English cwidu, cwudu, meaning "that which is chewed" or "cud". en.wiktionary.org
- Cud and quid are doublets. en.wiktionary.org