Sine qua non

By Deane Barker • • tags: latin •
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Latin for “without which, not.” It’s used to refer to something indispensable – “without this thing, this other thing is not possible.”

Why I Looked It Up

I can’t remember the specific usage that caused me to look it up, but I’ve seen this for years.

Update

Added on

From The Tyranny of Clichés:

…an idea that assumes with Hegelian orthodoxy that expansions of the State are the sine qua non of progress.

Update

Added on

From Harry Potter and the Art of Spying:

What is sine qua non? A wonderful Latin phrase that means an essential action, condition, or ingredient; as a legal term, it means a condition or preexisting ingredient without which that which follows cannot exist.

Links from this – The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas July 6, 2023
This is a sort of snarky book, but still very well-written. The author is tired of clichés that he believes the political Left has “captured,” but which he believes are simply not true. He spends the book deconstructing them. Some of the clichés the author is upset about (written in the form of...
Links from this – Harry Potter and the Art of Spying