Related Phrases
The phrase qui pro quo (from medieval Latin: literally "qui instead of quid"), is common in languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and French, where it means a misunderstanding. In those languages, the phrase corresponding to the usage of quid pro quo in Latin is do ut des (English for "I give so that you will give").
The two expressions seem to have the same origin, though they have different meanings. The Vocabolario Treccani, under the entry “qui pro quo”, observes that the latter expression probably derives from the Latin ‘quid pro quo’ used in late mediaeval pharmaceutical compilations (see the Vocabolario Treccani, http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/qui-pro-quo/)
Read more about this topic: Quid Pro Quo
Famous quotes containing the words related and/or phrases:
“So universal and widely related is any transcendent moral greatness, and so nearly identical with greatness everywhere and in every age,—as a pyramid contracts the nearer you approach its apex,—that, when I look over my commonplace-book of poetry, I find that the best of it is oftenest applicable, in part or wholly, to the case of Captain Brown.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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Ah, well! I hardly thought you
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First learn to be spasmodic—
A very simple rule.
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