"bite-sized piece" (of tobacco, etc.), "a portion suitable to be chewed or held in the mouth," 1727, dialectal variant of Middle English cudde, from Old English cudu, cwidu (see cud).
"a sovereign, one pound sterling," 1680s, British slang, possibly from quid "that which is, essence," (c. 1600, see quiddity), as used in quid pro quo (q.v.), or directly from Latin quid "what, something, anything." Compare French quibus, noted in Barrêre's dictionary of French argot (1889) as a word for "money, cash," said to be short for quibus fiunt omnia (see quibble (n.)).
"a quibble, a nicety or subtlety," 1580s, obsolete, probably a corruption or contraction of Latin quidlibet "what you please," from quid "anything," neuter of indefinite pronoun quis "somebody, someone or other" (from PIE root *kwo-, stem of relative and interrogative pronouns) + libet "it pleases" (from PIE root *leubh- "to care, desire, love").
"gossip-monger, one who is curious to know everything that happens," 1709 (as two words), etymologically "what now?" From Latin quid "what?" (neuter of interrogative pronoun quis "who?" from PIE root *kwo-, stem of relative and interrogative pronouns) and nunc "now" (see now), to describe someone forever asking "What's the news?"
"smart, sarcastic remark," 1530s, a variant of quippy in the same sense (1510s), perhaps from Latin quippe "indeed, of course, as you see, naturally, obviously" (used sarcastically), from quid "what" (neuter of pronoun quis "who," from PIE root *kwo-, stem of relative and interrogative pronouns) + emphatic particle -pe. Compare quibble (n.).
"to chew, chew roughly," 1520s, unexplained phonetic variant of chew (v.). OED notes that the variant form chow was "very common in 16-17th c." Bartlett's "Dictionary of Americanisms" [1859] says chaw, "Although found in good authors, ... is retained, in this country as in England, only by the illiterate." Related: Chawed; chawing. The noun meaning "that which is chewed" (especially a quid of tobacco) first recorded 1709.
"a trifling nicety in argument, a quibble," 1530s, from Medieval Latin quidditas "the essence of things," in Scholastic philosophy, "that which distinguishes a thing from other things," literally "whatness," from Latin quid "what," neuter of indefinite pronoun quis "somebody, someone or other" (from PIE root *kwo-, stem of relative and interrogative pronouns).
The sense developed from scholastic disputes over the nature of things. Original classical meaning "real essence or nature of a thing, that which distinguishes a thing from other things and makes it what it is" is attested in English from late 14c. (quidite).
1610s, "a pun, a play on words," probably a diminutive of obsolete quib "evasion of a point at issue" (1540s), which is based on Latin quibus? "by what (things)?" Its extensive use in legal writing supposedly gave it the association with trivial argument: "a word of frequent occurrence in legal documents ... hence associated with the 'quirks and quillets' of the law." [OED].
Latin quibus is dative or ablative plural of quid "in what respect? to what extent?; how? why?," neuter of relative pronoun quis (from PIE root *kwo-, stem of relative and interrogative pronouns).
