Chapter Q to Quarter of Q by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Quadriloge (3 syl.). Anything written in four parts or books, as Childe Harold. Anything compiled from four authors, as the Life of Thomas à Becket. Any history resting on the testimony of four independent authorities, as The Gospel History.

“The very authors of the Quadriloge itselfe or song of foure parts ... doe all with one pen and mouth acknowledge the same”- Lambarde: Perambulation, p. 55.

Quadrivium The four higher subjects of scholastic philosophy up to the twelfth century. It embraced music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. The quadrivium was the “fourfold way” to knowledge; the trivium (q.v.) the “threefold way” to eloquence; both together comprehended the seven arts or sciences. The seven arts are enumerated in the following hexameter:-

“Lingua, Tropus, Ratio, Numerus, Tonus, Angulus, Astra.”

   And in the two following:-

“Gram. loquitur, Dia. vera docet, Rhet. verba colorat.
Mus. cadit, Ar. numerat, Geo. ponderat, Ast. colit astra.”

Quadroon A person with one-fourth of black blood; the offspring of a mulatto woman by a white man. The mulatto is half-blooded, one parent being white and the other black. (Latin, quatuor, four.) (See Lamb .)

Quadruple Alliance of 1674 Germany, Spain, Denmark, and Holland formed an alliance against France to resist the encroachments of Louis XIV., who had declared war against Holland. It terminated with the treaty of Nimeguen in 1678.
   Quadruple Alliance of 1718-1719. An alliance between England, France, Germany, and Holland, to guarantee the succession in England to the House of Hanover; to secure the succession in France to the House of Bourbon; and to prohibit Spain and France from uniting under one crown. Signed at Paris.
   Quadruple Alliance of 1834. The alliance of England, France, Spain, and Portugal for the purpose of restoring peace to the Peninsula, by putting down the Carlists or partisans of Don Carlos.

Quaestio Vexata An open question.

Quail A bird, said to be very salacious, hence a prostitute or courtesan.

“Here's Agamemnon, an honest fellow enough, and one that loves quails.”- Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida, v. 1.

   The Ilaid of Homer is based on the story that Agamemnon, being obliged to give up his mistress, took the mistress of Achilles to supply her place. This brought about a quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, and Achilles refused to have anything more to do with the siege of Troy.

Quaint means odd, peculiar. A quaint phrase means a fanciful phrase, one not expressed in the ordinary way.

“His garment was very quaint and odd; ... a long, long way behind the time.”- Dickens: Christmas Stories; Cricket on the Hearth, chap. i.

Quaker It appears from the Journal of George Fox, who was imprisoned for nearly twelve months in Derby, that the Quakers first obtained the appellation (1650) by which they are now known from the following circumstance:- “Justice Bennet, of Derby,” says Fox, “was the first to call us Quakers, because I bade him quake and tremble at the word of the Lord.” The system of the Quakers is laid down by Robert Barclay in fifteen theses, called Barclay's Apology, addressed to Charles II.

“Quakers (that, like lanterns, bear
Their light within them) will not swear.”
Butler: Hudibras, ii. 2.

Qualm A sudden fit of illness, or sickly languor. Hence, a qualm of conscience = a twinge or uneasiness of conscience.

Quandary A perplexity; a state of hesitation.

Quanquam or Cancan. A slang manner of dancing quadrilles permitted in the public gardens of Paris, etc. The word cancan is a corruption of the Latin quamquam, a term applied to the exercises delivered