Quid Pro Quo Meaning: This for That

Quid pro quo meaning and definition

If you need to define quid pro quo, here is a neat definition of quid pro quo: a favor or advantage granted in return for something. Three settings are worth knowing:

1. Everyday trades. Two people agree to swap help, goods or favors. "I'll cover your Saturday shift if you take my Monday."
2. Business and contracts. Each side gives something of value. In contract law the thing each side gives is called consideration, and the idea of a quid pro quo sits behind it.
3. Improper deals. An exchange that is unfair or illegal because of who is involved: an official who acts in return for a payment, or a boss who links a promotion to sexual favors.

The phrase itself is neutral. It is the content of the deal that makes it harmless or wrong.

Quid pro quo in sentences

• Our neighbors water our plants when we travel, and we feed their cat when they are away; it is a quid pro quo that suits everyone.
• The two companies agreed a quid pro quo: one shares its customer list, the other offers a discount on software.
• The investigation looked at whether the contract was a quid pro quo for campaign donations.
• She refused to see the offer as a gift and asked what the quid pro quo was.

How it shows up in workplace law

In US employment law, quid pro quo harassment is a recognized form of sexual harassment. It happens when someone with power over a worker, such as a manager, makes a job benefit depend on sexual favors, or threatens a penalty if the worker refuses. A single clear incident can be enough. It is usually contrasted with hostile work environment harassment, which involves a pattern of unwelcome conduct.

The phrase also appears in bribery and corruption law, where prosecutors may need to show that something of value was exchanged for an official act. Not every gift is a quid pro quo; the question is whether one thing was given because of the other.

A medicine mix up: the history of the phrase

Quid pro quo is Latin, but English first used it in a surprising way. In the early sixteenth century, apothecaries used the phrase for substituting one medicine for another, sometimes by mistake and sometimes dishonestly. That sense is now gone. By the middle of that century it had come to mean an exchange of one thing for another, including paying someone back.

In modern French the related word quiproquo means a misunderstanding, one thing taken for another, which echoes that early mix up idea. English kept the trade sense instead. The British slang quid for a pound is a separate word, so do not read money into the phrase. You can find more borrowed expressions on our phrases and greetings page.

Quid pro quo vs tit for tat and other neighbors

Two other Latin phrases people mix up with it: status quo (the current state of things) and vice versa (the other way round). They share a sound, not a meaning.

Grammar and style tips

Write it as three separate words, with no hyphens when used as a noun: a quid pro quo. Before another noun many style guides add hyphens: a quid-pro-quo arrangement. The plural is normally quid pro quos. Italics are optional; the phrase is fully at home in English.

Common patterns include as a quid pro quo for, in a quid pro quo, there was no quid pro quo and what is the quid pro quo?. Courtroom and civic phrases like this one are gathered in a hub for legal and public life vocabulary.