While some altruists will happily lend a hand without ask anything in retort , most of the world runs on the approximation that you should be compensated in some fashion for your goods and services .
That ’s quid pro quo , aLatin phrasewhich literally means “ something for something . ” In many case , one of those “ somethings ” refers to money — you compensate for concert tickets , your caller pays you to teach your boss how to open a PDF , etc . However , quid pro quo also use to plenty of situations in which no money is involved . Maybe your roommate agree to lend you her favorite perspirer if you promised to wash her dishes for a calendar month . Or perhaps , in counter for walking your neighbour ’s dog while he was on vacation , he gave you his HBO login certification .
No matter the circumstances , any deal in which you give something and you get something falls under the category of quid pro quo . concord toThe Law Dictionary , “ it is nothing more than the common consideration which passes between the parties to a contract , and which render it valid and binding . ” In other Good Book , if everyone on both sides understands the prospect that something will be make in recurrence for a good or service , your contract is valid .
establish on that definition , quid pro quo hinge on transparency ; all party must understand that there ’s an rally being made . However , this was n’t always the case . As theColumbia Journalism Reviewreports , Merriam - Webster ’s dictionary entrystatesthat quid pro quo pro quo was used in sixteenth - hundred apothecaries to refer when one medicine had been stand in for another , “ whether intentionally ( and sometimes fraudulently ) or unexpectedly . ”
So , if you were an ill-starred barbarian with a tender throat , it ’s possible your herbal curative could ’ve been swapped out with something less effective — or even severe . Though Merriam - Webster does n’t pop the question any specific examples of how or why this happened , it emphatically seems like it would have been all too well-situated to “ accidentally”poisonyour enemies during that time .
Just a few 10 later , the term had gained enough popularity that mass were using it for less deleterious representative , much like we do today .
[ h / tColumbia Journalism Review ]
