Idiom
the status quo
Meaning
The way things currently are, especially when someone wants to keep them that way.
Examples
“Most people here are happy with the status quo.”
“The review recommended sweeping changes, and the committee voted to maintain the status quo.”
“Nobody in the room was willing to defend the status quo on its merits, and it survived anyway, because every proposed alternative required somebody specific to lose something specific.”
Examples
simple
“Most people here are happy with the status quo.”
contextual
“The review recommended sweeping changes, and the committee voted to maintain the status quo.”
complex
“Nobody in the room was willing to defend the status quo on its merits, and it survived anyway, because every proposed alternative required somebody specific to lose something specific.”
Origin
Status quo is a fragment of a longer diplomatic formula: in statu quo ante bellum, in the state in which things were before the war. Treaties used it to specify that borders and possessions revert to their pre-war positions, and the shortened status quo ante is still used that way.
The vocabulary is Roman legal Latin — status, standing or condition, is one of the load-bearing words of Roman law — but the diplomatic phrase belongs to the treaty-drafters of early modern Europe.
English dropped the ante and kept the rest. The status quo now simply means how things are, and the phrase almost always appears in a sentence about whether they should stay that way: defending the status quo, challenging it, or being accused of preferring it.
Stories
The Law's Latin · See all Roman origin
Roman legal Latin that never left the courtroom — or the boardroom.
bona fide — Genuine and honestly meant — the real thing, not a pretence.
caveat emptor — Let the buyer beware — checking what you are buying is your own problem.
quid pro quo — Something given in return for something else, usually as an understood trade.
de facto — In practice, whatever the official position says.
de jure — According to the law, whether or not that is what actually happens.
ipso facto — By that very fact — the consequence follows automatically, with no further step.
- Level
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Updated