quidam

From Latin quīdam.

quidam (plural quidams)

1. A nobody; a person of no importance. [from 16th c.]
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, Essays, III.12:

     A quidam gallant determined upon a time to surprise both my house and my selfe.

   • 1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives, vol. IV, letter 77:

     She singing a miserable ditty, a bead-roll of lamentable rhymes, strung together by this Quidam!—This Henley!

From Latin quīdam.

• IPA^(key): /ki.dam/

• Audio:

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quidam m (plural quidams)

1. used to designate persons whose name are unknown or not mentioned
2. a person whose identity is not indicated, in a conversation, a writing
   • 2015 January, Virginie Despentes, Vernon Subutex, volume 1, Éditions Grasset, →ISBN:

     Noël regarde autour de lui, cherche les yeux de ses potes, il est hilare. Ils savent que ça ne présage rien de bon pour le quidam.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. individual

• “quidam”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From quis +‎ -dam (indefinite adverbial suffix). Compare quondam (“at one time”).

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷiː.dãː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkʷiː.d̪am]

quīdam (feminine quaedam, neuter quiddam); indefinite pronoun

1. someone, a certain one/thing; something
   • 160 BCE, Publius Terentius Afer, Adelphoe 647:

     Habitant hīc quaedam mulierēs pauperculae.

     Some poor women live here.

   • (Can we date this quote?), Seneca, Epistulae ad Luculium, III, 28:

     Quidam vitiis gloriantur.

     Some boast of their faults.

Not to be confused with quidem.

Indefinite pronoun.

¹An alternative masculine nominative/accusative plural form quēsdam occurs in Accius.
²The genitive singular was spelled quoiusdam before the Augustan period.
³The dative singular was spelled quoidam before the Augustan period.
⁴The dative/ablative plural has a rare alternative form quīsdam/queisdam.

quīdam (feminine quaedam, neuter quiddam); indefinite pronoun

1. a certain (person or thing), some (person or thing), one (in the sense of "a specific" person or thing not previously introduced in the present discourse)
   • c. 62 BCE, Cicero, chapter 1, in Pro Archia Poeta‎^[1], §2:

     etenim omnes artes, quae ad humanitatem pertinent, habent quoddam commune vinculum et quasi cognatione quadam inter se continentur.

     Indeed all the arts, which pertain to humanity, have some common link and by a certain almost-kindred are held together.

   • c. 4 BCE – 65 CE, Seneca the Younger, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium 1.1.1:

     Persuādē tibi hoc sīc esse ut scrībō: quaedam tempora ēripiuntur nōbīs, quaedam subdūcuntur, quaedam effluunt.

     Convince yourself that what I write is true: Certain moments are taken from us, some are stolen, still others vanish away.

Indefinite pronoun.

¹An alternative masculine nominative/accusative plural form quēsdam occurs in Accius.
²The genitive singular was spelled quoiusdam before the Augustan period.
³The dative singular was spelled quoidam before the Augustan period.
⁴The dative/ablative plural has a rare alternative form quīsdam/queisdam.

• “quidam”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “quidam”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "quidam", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• quidam in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • I have a few words to say on this: mihi quaedam dicenda sunt de hac re