I was reading Les Misérables and on page 180 it says:
Dieser Feldzug hatte ihm, wie er sich ausdrückte, Quibus eingebracht, und damit hatte er seine Gastwirtschaft in Montfermeil gegründet. Aber Quibus, gestohlene Börsen und Uhren, goldene Ringe und silberne Kreuze, der Ertrag eines Schlachtfeldes, reichte nicht aus, um es wirklich weiterzubringen.
What does Quibus mean in that context? I know it means dadurch, daher, dieser, jener. But none of these make sense to me.
The word quibus was left untranslated from the French original where Victor Hugo put it in quotes to even better reflect that it was the word Thénardier used.
Cette campagne faite, ayant, comme il disait, « du quibus », il était venu ouvrir gargote à Montfermeil.
Derived from Latin it was used in France from the 17. Century as a widely known term for: money, wherewithal, wealth. It even was mentioned in a nursery rhyme:
Quibus, quabus!
Qui est-ce donc qui glousse?
C’est la poule et ses poulettes,
Qui n’ont ni souliers ni chaussettes;
Monsieur Canard et madame Oie,
Qui ne veulent jamais marcher droit.
Ils viennent de bien loin, allez!
De par la mer des scarabées,
Où ils n’ont trouvé à gruger
Que du fromage tout émietté.
Ah! donnez vite, car ils ont faim,
Donnez-leur vite une croûte de pain.
Monsieur du Coq, d’un ton hardi,
Vous crie déjà: kiki riki!
Of course the same meaning (Geld, Wohlstand) still holds true for the German translation.
Es hatte ihm Quibus eingebracht (it had yielded him quibus).
It seems to come from conquibus (quibus is probably a short form, or a mispronunciation, or a colloquial term in France at the time the book was written). That is explained here:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/conquibus
It seems to mean wealth, money, possessions, or more strictly: wherewithal.
I think that matches the meaning it has in the context you quoted.
You face an euphemism here.
Dieser Feldzug hatte ihm, wie er sich ausdrückte, einiges von Wert eingebracht. Aber einiges von Wert, gestohlene Börsen und Uhren, goldene Ringe und silberne Kreuze, der Ertrag eines Schlachtfeldes …
The important part is wie er sich ausdrückte. This is a marker phrase for euphemisms uncovered.
Er hatte das Problem, wie er sich ausdrückte, gelöst.
He had, in his words, "solved" the problem.
Germans don't draw ticks in the air nor they write them. Euphemisms are marked with phrases instead.
So in your example it's not necessary to know what Quibus really means (the author pretty much assumed no one would even bother to look it up). It's an euphemism for the loot enumerated in the next sentence.
