# Question regarding Latin idiom "quoad rem"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-latin-idiom-quoad-rem/714170>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 4, 2015, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-latin-idiom-quoad-rem/714170 "2015-03-04T02:53:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\
**Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-latin-idiom-quoad-rem/714170/1 "2015-03-04T02:53:37Z")

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I was reading the introduction to Summula Philosophiae Scholasticae: Logica et Ontologica and I came across this passage:

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> Hinc philosophia **quoad rem** definitur: Scientia rerum omnium per ultimas earum causas (seu rationes) naturali lumine comparata.

The bolding was in the original.

The first part is the bit in question. I was puzzled by what _rem_ was doing there, and in the accusative. The passive verb had a subject, and was not wanting an object, unless there was some idiom I wasn’t familiar with. I looked up _quoad_, _rēs_ and _dēfīniō_ in my dictionaries and grammer references to see if any of those entries indicated an idiom that would make sense of this construction. Nothing. Then I tried Googling variations on the phrase, and found that ‘quoad rem definitur’ brought up [this site](https://books.google.com/books?id=TVo_AAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA570&lpg=RA1-PA570&dq=quoad+rem+definitur&source=bl&ots=uB2cMPFbpp&sig=iOwvMNp9pdXSzkRbZOtQOpHL_lA&hl=la&sa=X&ei=Ft_1VJLgMIGegwS46oPABw&ved=0CCQQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=quoad%20rem%20definitur&f=false) which features two possibly enlightening sentences beginning thusly:

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> 1. Quoad nomen. Illud sacramentum…

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> 1. Quoad rem, definitur: Sacramentum…

_Quoad nōmen_ looks like it simply means something like we might render in English as “so far as the name goes…” This suggests to me that therefore _quoad rem_ (set apart from the rest with a comma) would mean something like “insofar as it’s a thing” or more idiomatically in English as “as to the thing itself…”

But, really, what does it mean? And does anyone know of a reference source I’m lacking that would account for this idiom?

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**Author:** ![Vaevictis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f04885/32.png) [@Vaevictis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vaevictis)\
**Post date:** [March 8, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-latin-idiom-quoad-rem/714170/2 "2015-03-08T16:36:56Z")

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I think you have it dead on. If you search under ‘quoad rem quoad nomen’ you get several ecclesiastical passages that pair quoad rem and quoad nomen distinctions.

Here’s one that backs up your analysis. I found it online in a book called ‘Iustitia Dei’ by McGrath. On page 285 it quotes this passage:

Et in sententia dicunt, quod quoad nomen justificatio idem est quod ‘justifactio’, iustificari idem quod ‘iustum fieri coram Deo.’ Quoad rem autem iustificatio est remissio peccatorum a Deo per gratiam. Iustificari idem est quod remitti peccata a Deo per gratiam.

Quick perusal seems to indicate lots of other such usages. So quoad rem could be an idiomatic shorthand for ‘I am taking about the concrete specifics of the thing, not discussing the etymology/definition or other aspects of the word that serves as its name.’

All provided the rest of the context does not make clear that ‘rem’ refers to something else.