quid pro quo

5 December 2025

Quid pro quo literally means “this for that” in Latin, but when did it appear and what does it mean in English?

The catchphrase arose in post-classical Latin in the fourth century CE. An early appearance in English is in the 1535 translation of Erasmus’s A Lytle Treatise of the Maner & Forme of Confession in the context of substituting one medicine for another:

But yet poticaries and phisions do more greuously offende / than do these persones now rehersed, which haue a prouerbe amonge them, quid pro quo, one thynge for another. They do otherwhyles sell this thynge, for that thy[n]g / they do minister stuffe that is rotten, and without any vertue or strengthe / yea & nowe hurtfull / in steade of remedy and helpefull medecine.

These lines were inserted by the translator and do not appear in Erasmus’s Latin original. The sense of quid pro quo meaning a substitution is now rare.

Quid pro quo meaning a thing given in return for something else appears a few decades later, around 1560, in the Hereford Municipal Manuscripts:

Only in equitie and concyence considinge that yor orator hath not quid p[ro] quo.

And the sense meaning the action of giving something for a consideration in return appears by 1640 in James Howell’s Dendrologia:

The golden chaine of policy hath beene alwayes held to be, That the defense of a kingdome is the office of the Prince, the honour of the Peeres, the service of the Souldier, and the charge of the subject, for Qui sentit commodum, sentire debet & onus [He who feels the advantage must also feel the burden].

Adde hereunto, that alleageance is an act of reciprocation; as it bindes the King to protect, so it ties the subject to contribute, and by this correspondence there is a quid pro quo.

In present-day use, quid pro quo often appears in a legal context. There is quid pro quo corruption, that is the exchange of an official act in return for something of value, in other words, bribery. And since 1982, American jurisprudence has recognized the concept of quid pro quo sexual harassment, in which a supervisor provides employment, promotion, or some other advantage at work in return for an employee performing sexual acts. This is contrasted with hostile-environment sexual harassment, in which an employee is subject to severe or pervasive, unwelcome sexual words or behavior.

But in general, a quid pro quo transaction is not, in and of itself, illegal or unethical. We all perform them routinely. Most business transactions, for example, are quid pro quos—a purchase where the shopper receives a product in return for giving the merchant money. But since such exchanges are so routine, the phrase tends to only appear in negative contexts.

Sources:

Erasmus, Desiderius. A Lytle Treatise of the Maner & Forme of Confession. London: Johan Byddell for William Marshall, 1535, sig. M7v–r. ProQuest: Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Garner, Bryan A., ed. Black’s Law Dictionary, twelfth edition, 2024, s.v. quid pro quo; corruption; sexual harassment. Thomson Reuters Westlaw.

Howell, James. Dendrologia: Dodona's grove, or, the vocall forrest. London: Thomas Badger for H. Mosley, 1640, 211–212. ProQuest: Early English Books Online (EEBO).

Oxford English Dictionary Online, December 2007, s.v. quid pro quo, phr. & n.

Image credit: Lucas Cranach, the elder (1472–1553, “Antichristus,” Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.