A priori, ipso facto, in situ, vox populi, rare avis, status quo, sine qua non, mea culpa, carpe diem… There are a large number of Latin expressions that have become part of Spanish. These phrases are not always used properly, either because their meaning is not clear or because they are written incorrectly. As an example, this button: Quid pro quo.
Quid pro quo. Expression formed by the pronoun qui, the preposition pro and the ablative quo. It is pronounced kuíd-pro-kuó and literally means “quid instead of quo”, “something in exchange for something”. As explained in the Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE), “it is used as a masculine nominal phrase in the sense of ‘thing that is received as compensation for the transfer of another'”.
An illustrative example is given after an election, when different political forces negotiate a government agreement, each having to cede some points of their programs until the pact is closed.
The phrase also means “mistake that consists of mistaking one person or thing for another.” “The apothecary made a mistake in mixing the ingredients, a quid pro quo that could prove fatal.”
As it happens with other Latin expressions, there are those who do not write quid pro quo correctly, expressing “qui pro quo”, which is an incorrect form. Furthermore, the plural is invariable: the quid pro quo.
The confusion presented by the phrase is that in English, quid pro quo began to be applied by mistake to refer to reciprocity in a deal. Surely one of the best known cases is that of the movie The Silence of the Lambs, when the agent Clarice Starling goes to prison to ask for the help of the cannibal Hannibal Lecter. Through the security glass Lecter agrees to lend a hand, but with conditions: “Quid pro quo, Clarice, I tell you things and you tell me things.”
The Latin phrase used by Hannibal Lecter would make sense in Anglo-Saxon countries, while in Europe there is an expression more in line with the aforementioned context, “do ut des”, that is, “I give you something in exchange for something”.
In any case, as we have already seen at the beginning and as has already happened with other words and locutions, the RAE accepted in 2005 that Anglo-Saxon meaning that is so widespread in our language, so that today both expressions can be used. For the most pure, “do ut des” is still the correct way to express “I give you so you can give me”.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
