Quiddities: An Intermittently Philosophical Dictionary W. V. Quine
To define the quiddity of a thing originally meant to define its essential nature, then the word came to mean a subtle distinction and later a quibble. All three senses are called into play in the title of W.V. Quine's Quiddities. It contains a series of brief essays, in a dictionary form, on subjects ranging from altruism to zero.