quillet

/ˈkwɪlɪt/

Etymology

Uncertain. Possibly a shortening of earlier quillity, itself of uncertain origin, or from Latin quidlibet (“anything”).

quillet means A quibble, an evasive distinction. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

QUILLET — [Noun] A subtle or evasive point of argument, a quibble; historically, a small, narrow strip of land. Its origin is uncertain; possibly a shortening of earlier 'quillity', a variant of 'quiddity' (from Latin 'quidditas', "essence"), or from Latin 'quidlibet' ("anything"). Unlike "quiddity," which seeks the essential nature of a thing, or "selion," which denotes a precise strip of arable land, a quillet is a sliver in both senses: the lawyer’s fine-print clause that voids the spirit of the contract, the academic’s refuge in a footnote to sidestep the question, or the serpentine hedgerow dividing one worthless acre from another—a testament to how human ingenuity fragments wholeness, whether soil or sense, into defensible, barren parcels.

noun

A quibble, an evasive distinction.“There’s another : why might not that bee the Scull of a Lawyer ? where be his Quiddits now ? his Quillets ? his Caſes ? his Tenures, and his Tricks ? why doe’s he ſuffer this rude knaue now to knocke him about the Sconce with a dirty Shouell, and will not tell him of his Action of Battery ? hum.”
A small plot of land; historically: a strip of land that together with others like it formed a larger field.“The single and only [Royal Wilding apple] tree from which the apple was first propagated is very tall, fair, and stout ; I believe it stands about twenty feet high. It stands in a very little quillet (as we call it) of gardening, adjoining to the post-road that leads from Exeter to Oakhampton, in the parish of St. Thomas, but near the borders of another parish called Whitestone.”