‖ sine qua non
(ˈsaɪnɪ kweɪ nɒn, ˌsɪneɪ kwɑː ˈnəʊn)
Also 8– quâ.
[L., sine without + quā, abl. sing. fem. of quī which (agreeing with causa) + nōn not.
The Latin phrase, which is common in scholastic use, occurs in Boëthius, and had its source in Aristotelian expressions. The corresponding plural sine quibus non has occasionally been employed.]
1. With adjectival force: Indispensable, absolutely necessary or essential. a. Following upon a noun (orig. cause).
| [1588 Greene Perimedes Wks. (Grosart) VII. 44 They proceede not of necessitie, as causa sine qua non, but as infections that flowe from the abuse.] 1615 in Birch Crt. & Times Jas. I (1848) I. 378 He..was in some sort as a cause sine qua non of their blood that were dead for the fact before him. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. 382 Which kind of Philosophers (saith he) do not seem to me, to distinguish betwixt the True and Proper Cause of things, and the Cause Sine qua non. a 1734 North Examen iii. vii. §64 (1740) 550 The Preliminary Article sine quâ non, was that..he should surrender his Place of Recorder. [1811 J. Adams Wks. (1856) I. 673 They would not insist upon the fisheries or western lands as conditions sine quibus non of peace.] |
b. Used attributively.
| 1798 M. G. Lewis in Lockhart Scott (1837) I. ix. 291 A ghost or a witch is a sine qua non ingredient in all the dishes of which I mean to compose my hobgoblin repast. 1840 De Quincey Style iv. (1860) 312 Publication..is a sine qua non condition for the generation of literature. 1870 J. H. Newman Gram. Assent i. iv. 39 Though acts of assent require previous acts of inference, they require them, not as adequate causes, but as sine quâ non conditions. |
2. Somebody or something indispensable.
| 1602 Cecil Let. in Moryson Itin. (1617) ii. 221 You are not the efficient cause or sine qua non. 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. i. ii, My mother agreed with her marriage-maker, her Sine qua, non,..to come one day thither to make merry. 1774 H. Walpole Lett. (1857) VI. 111 Remember, a brother is the sine quâ non of my reconciliation. 1786 Ld. Kenyon in Brown's Chanc. Cases II. 46 Certainty of the property, though one of the sine quâ nons, was wanting. 1814 Amer. St. Papers, For. Relat. (1832) III. 709 It was a sine qua non that the Indians should be included in the pacification. 1853 ‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green i. xviii, It seemed a sine quâ non with the gentlemen who superintended the training. 1885 Law Rep. 29 Chanc. Div. 285 Every finding of fact that was a sine quâ non of the judgment. |
b. pl. Breeches. (Cf. indispensable n. c.)
| 1850 Smedley Frank Fairlegh xvii, Your..negotiation with that raw-boned giant in the blue plush sine qua nons. |
Hence sine-qua-ˈnonical a., indispensable; sine-qua-ˈnonniness, indispensability.
| 1816 Moore Mem. (1853) II. 95 The shabbiness with which they are daily surrendering so many wise, indispensable, and sine-quâ-nonical measures to the bullies of Opposition. 1834 Southey Doctor iii. (A. 1) I. 20 Nature herself shows us the utility, the importance,..the sinequanonniness of pockets. |