essence

essence

synonyms, antonyms, definitions, examples & translations of essence in English

English Online Dictionary. What means essence‎? What does essence mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English essence, from Middle French essence, from Latin essentia (the being or essence of a thing), from an artificial formation of esse (to be), to translate Ancient Greek οὐσία (ousía, being), from ὤν (ṓn), present participle of εἰμί (eimí, I am, exist).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɛsəns/
  • Rhymes: -ɛsəns

Noun

essence (countable and uncountable, plural essences)

  1. The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
    • 1713 September 21, Joseph Addison, The Guardian, collected in The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, volume IV, Birmingham: John Baskerville, published 1761, page 263:
      CHARITY is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands, ſays an old writer. Gifts and alms are the expreſſions, not the eſſence of this virtue.
  2. (philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
  3. Constituent substance.
  4. A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
  5. A significant feature of something.
    (Can we add an example for this sense?)
  6. The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.
  7. An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring, or as a restorative.
  8. Fragrance, a perfume.

Synonyms

  • (inherent nature): quintessence, whatness; See also Thesaurus:essence
  • (significant feature): gist, crux; See also Thesaurus:gist
  • (fragrance): aroma, bouquet; See also Thesaurus:aroma

Derived terms

Related terms

  • essential
  • essentially
  • essentialism
  • quintessential

Translations

Further reading

  • “essence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
  • “essence”, in The Century Dictionary [], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

  • senesce

French

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin essentia. Sense 2 very likely from Latin edō (eat), in the sense of 'what is eaten, fuel'. Many forms of the latter are indistinguishable from the former, and so the confusion with essence is very understandable.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /e.sɑ̃s/, /ɛ.sɑ̃s/ ~ /e.sɑ̃s/

Noun

essence f (plural essences)

  1. (philosophy, theology) essence
  2. petrol, gasoline
  3. essence, essential oil

Derived terms

  • pompe à essence
  • poste d’essence
  • station essence

Descendants

  • Dutch: essence
  • Finnish: esanssi
  • Romanian: esență
  • Turkish: esans
  • Vietnamese: ét-xăng

Further reading

  • “essence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

  • censées

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This article based on an article on Wiktionary. The list of authors can be seen in the page history there. The original work has been modified. This article is distributed under the terms of this license.