On the word "quip"

In modern English a quip tends to mean a clever, fast-moving remark, the kind that earns a laugh in a meeting or a smirk in the back row. We picked the word for QuipCast because the modern usage is friendly and approachable, but also because the deeper meaning of the word fits the product better than any single modern label we could have invented.

The root is Latin. Quippe is a small particle that early Roman writers used to introduce something self-evidently true, or to underline a fact the speaker considered too obvious to argue with. It carried a tone somewhere between "indeed" and "of course," with a faint trace of look, I'm about to say something worth noting. Cicero used it. Virgil used it. The word always sat next to a small observation that the writer wanted you to remember.

That, in one Latin particle, is what we wanted the product to do. Cue the small observations that people thought were worth pausing on. Aphorisms. Adages. Verses. Mantras. Punchlines. Reminders. Lines you wrote in the margin of a book and forgot. Lines a stranger's grandmother thought were the most important thing she could pass on. Lines a teacher tried to leave behind. Lines that have already survived everything the world has thrown at them.

So quip in the modern English sense is the friendly door in. Quippe in the Latin sense is the part you walk through when you start paying attention.

QuipCast is the verb. Cast a quip onto the wall. Cue it back when the moment is right. Cast it to the next room, or the next year. Move it through your day the way ink moves on paper, then back to sleep, then back again.

The first time we used the word in a slide deck, it felt a little playful. The first time we used it on a frame on the wall, it stopped feeling playful and started feeling correct. We hope it lands the same way for you.