quid pro quo
American Heritage Dictionary:
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quid pro quo
(kwĭd' prō kwō') 
n., pl., quid pro quos, or quids pro quo.
An equal exchange or substitution.
n., pl., quid pro quos, or quids pro quo.
An equal exchange or substitution.
[Latin quid prō quō : quid, something + prō, for + quō, ablative of quid, something.]
Barron's Finance & Investment Dictionary:
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quid pro quo
In general: from the Latin, meaning “something for something.” By mutual agreement, one party provides a good or service for which he or she gets another good or service in return.
Securities industry: arrangement by a firm using institutional research that it will execute all trades based on that research with the firm providing it, instead of directly paying for the research. This is known as paying in Soft Dollars.
| Quid, Quics | |
| Quiet Period, Quips |
American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms:
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quid pro quo
An equal exchange or substitution, as in I think it should be quid pro quo--you mow the lawn and I'll take you to the movies. This Latin expression, meaning "something for something," has been used in English since the late 1500s.
Barron's Law Dictionary:
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quid pro quo
(kw˘ıd pr¯o kw¯o)— Lat.: what for what; something for something; in some legal contexts, synonymous with consideration , see 209 S.W. 2d 249; sometimes referred to simply as the quid and always indicating that which the party receives or is promised in return for something he promises, gives, or does, e.g., a defendant’s willingness to testify for the state may be the quid pro quo for the government’s willingness to accept a plea of guilty to a lesser offense.
Investopedia Financial Dictionary:
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Quid Pro Quo
A Latin phrase meaning "something for something". This term is typically used in financial circles to describe a mutual agreement between two parties in which each party provides a good or service in return for a good or service.
Investopedia Says:
Quid pro quo agreements are sometimes viewed negatively. For example, in a quid pro quo agreement between a large financial house and a company, the financial house might alter poor stock ratings in exchange for company business. In response to these potential occurrences, the NASD has issued rules in order to ensure that firms put customers’ interests before their own.
A positive example of a quid pro quo agreement is a soft dollar agreement. In a soft dollar agreement, one firm (Firm A) uses another firm’s (Firm B) research. In exchange, Firm B executes all of Firm A's trades. This exchange of services is used as payment in lieu of a traditional, hard dollar payment.
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Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'quid pro quo'
- Latin Words and Phrases - quid pro quo: something given for something; an exchange
Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary:
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quid pro quo
See crossword solutions for the clue Quid pro quo.
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Quid pro quo
For other uses, see Quid Pro Quo.
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2011) |
Quid pro quo ("this for that" in Latin[1]) most often means a more-or-less equal exchange or substitution of goods or services. English speakers often use the term to mean "a favor for a favor" and the phrases with almost identical meaning include: "give and take", "tit for tat", "this for that", and "you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours". Other meanings are given later in this article.
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Legal usage
In legal usage, quid pro quo indicates that an item or a service has been traded in return for something of value, usually when the propriety or equity of the transaction is in question. For example, under the common law, a binding contract must involve consideration: that is, the exchange of something of value for something else of economic value. In the United States, if the exchange appears excessively one sided, courts in some jurisdictions may question whether a quid pro quo did actually exist and the contract may be void by law.[2]
Similarly, political donors are legally entitled to support candidates that hold positions with which the donors agree, or which will benefit the donors. Such conduct becomes bribery only when there is an identifiable exchange between the contribution and official acts, previous or subsequent, and the term quid pro quo denotes such an exchange. The term may also be used to describe blackmail, where a person offers to refrain from some harmful conduct in return for valuable consideration.
Quid pro quo harassment occurs when employment or academic decisions or expectations (hiring, promotions, salary increases, shift or work assignments, performance standards, grades, access to recommendations, assistance with school work, etc.) are based on an employee or student's submission to or rejection of sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other behaviour of a sexual nature. These cases involve tangible actions that adversely affect either the conditions of work or academic progress.
Other meanings
- Quid pro quo may sometimes be used to define a misunderstanding or blunder made by the substituting of one thing for another, particularly in the context of the transcribing of a text.[3] In this alternate context, the phrase qui pro quo is more correct (see below).
Related phrases
The phrase qui pro quo (from medieval Latin: literally "qui instead of quo"), is common in languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and French, where it means a misunderstanding.[4][5] In those languages, the phrase corresponding to the usage of quid pro quo in English is do ut des (Latin for "I give so that you will give").
See also
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Look up quid pro quo in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Notes
- ^ Merriam-Webster, the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Fourth Edition), and the New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (Third Edition)bartleby.com all so define the Latin expression.
- ^ One such example is "section 2-302 of the Uniform Commercial Code". http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/2/article2.htm#s2-302.
- ^ "Blunder made by using or putting one thing for another (now rare)" – Concise Oxford Dictionary, 4th edition, 1950.
- ^ (Italian) Treccani, qui pro quo.
- ^ Qui pro quo used to refer to a copying mistake made by a scribe, qui being the nominative case and quo the ablative case of the same personal pronoun. Further information may be found in the AWADmail Issue 49.
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Barron's Finance & Investment Dictionary
Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms. Copyright © 2010 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.
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American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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