What do the word essence mean

Essence (Latin: essentia) is a polysemic term, that is, it may have significantly different meanings and uses. It is used in philosophy and theology as a designation for the property or set of properties or attributes that make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity. Essence is contrasted with accident: a property or attribute the entity or substance has contingently, without which the substance can still retain its identity.

The concept originates rigorously with Aristotle (although it can also be found in Plato),^[1] who used the Greek expression to ti ên einai (τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι,^[2] literally meaning «the what it was to be» and corresponding to the scholastic term quiddity) or sometimes the shorter phrase to ti esti (τὸ τί ἐστι,^[3] literally meaning «the what it is» and corresponding to the scholastic term (haecceity(thisness) for the same idea. This phrase presented such difficulties for its Latin translators that they coined the word essentia (English «essence») to represent the whole expression. For Aristotle and his scholastic followers, the notion of essence is closely linked to that of definition (ὁρισμός horismos).^[4]

In the history of Western philosophy, essence has often served as a vehicle for doctrines that tend to individuate different forms of existence as well as different identity conditions for objects and properties; in this logical meaning, the concept has given a strong theoretical and common-sense basis to the whole family of logical theories based on the «possible worlds» analogy set up by Leibniz and developed in the intensional logic from Carnap to Kripke, which was later challenged by «extensionalist» philosophers such as Quine.

EtymologyEdit

The English word essence comes from Latin essentia, via French essence. The original Latin word was created purposefully, by Ancient Roman philosophers, in order to provide an adequate Latin translation for the Greek term οὐσία (ousia). Stoic philosopher Seneca (d. 65 AD) attributed creation of the word to Cicero (d. 43 BC), while rhetor Quintilian (d. 100 AD) claimed that the word was created much earlier, by writer Plautus (184 BC). Early use of the term is also attested in works of Apuleius (d. 170 AD) and Tertullian (d. 240 AD). During Late Antiquity, the term was often used in Christian theology, and through the works of Augustine (d. 430), Boethius (d. 524) and later theologians, who wrote in Medieval Latin, it became the basis for consequent creation of derived terms in many languages.^[5]

PhilosophyEdit

Ontological statusEdit

In his dialogues Plato suggests that concrete beings acquire their essence through their relations to «Forms»—abstract universals logically or ontologically separate from the objects of sense perception. These Forms are often put forth as the models or paradigms of which sensible things are «copies». When used in this sense, the word form is often capitalized.^[6] Sensible bodies are in constant flux and imperfect and hence, by Plato’s reckoning, less real than the Forms which are eternal, unchanging and complete. Typical examples of Forms given by Plato are largeness, smallness, equality, unity, goodness, beauty and justice.

Aristotle moves the Forms of Plato to the nucleus of the individual thing, which is called ousia or substance. Essence is the ti of the thing, the to ti en einai. Essence corresponds to the ousia‘s definition; essence is a real and physical aspect of the ousia (Aristotle, Metaphysics, I).

According to nominalists (Roscelin of Compiègne, William of Ockham, Bernard of Chartres), universals aren’t concrete entities, just voice’s sounds; there are only individuals: «nam cum habeat eorum sententia nihil esse praeter individuum […]» (Roscelin, De gener. et spec., 524). Universals are words that can call to several individuals; for example the word «homo». Therefore, a universal is reduced to a sound’s emission (Roscelin, De generibus et speciebus).

John Locke distinguished between «real essences» and «nominal essences». Real essences are the thing(s) that makes a thing a thing, whereas nominal essences are our conception of what makes a thing a thing.^[7]

According to Edmund Husserl essence is ideal. However, ideal means that essence is an intentional object of consciousness. Essence is interpreted as sense (E. Husserl, Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and to a phenomenological philosophy, paragraphs 3 and 4).

ExistentialismEdit

Existentialism was coined by Jean-Paul Sartre’s endorsement of Martin Heidegger’s statement that for human beings «existence precedes essence.» In as much as «essence» is a cornerstone of all metaphysical philosophy and of Rationalism, Sartre’s statement was a repudiation of the philosophical system that had come before him (and, in particular, that of Husserl, Hegel, and Heidegger). Instead of «is-ness» generating «actuality,» he argued that existence and actuality come first, and the essence is derived afterward. For Kierkegaard, it is the individual person who is the supreme moral entity, and the personal, subjective aspects of human life that are the most important; also, for Kierkegaard all of this had religious implications.^[8]

In metaphysicsEdit

«Essence,» in metaphysics, is often synonymous with the soul, and some existentialists argue that individuals gain their souls and spirits after they exist, that they develop their souls and spirits during their lifetimes. For Kierkegaard, however, the emphasis was upon essence as «nature.» For him, there is no such thing as «human nature» that determines how a human will behave or what a human will be. First, he or she exists, and then comes property. Jean-Paul Sartre’s more materialist and skeptical existentialism furthered this existentialist tenet by flatly refuting any metaphysical essence, any soul, and arguing instead that there is merely existence, with attributes as essence.

Thus, in existentialist discourse, essence can refer to:

• physical aspect or property;
• the ongoing being of a person (the character or internally determined goals); or
• the infinite inbound within the human (which can be lost, can atrophy, or can be developed into an equal part with the finite), depending upon the type of existentialist discourse.

ReligionEdit

BuddhismEdit

Within the Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism, Candrakirti identifies the self as:

an essence of things that does not depend on others; it is an intrinsic nature. The non-existence of that is selflessness.

— Bodhisattvayogacaryācatuḥśatakaṭikā 256.1.7^[9]

Buddhapālita adds, while commenting on Nagārjuna’s Mūlamadhyamakakārikā,

What is the reality of things just as it is? It is the absence of essence. Unskilled persons whose eye of intelligence is obscured by the darkness of delusion conceive of an essence of things and then generate attachment and hostility with regard to them.

— Buddhapālita-mula-madhyamaka-vrtti, P5242, 73.5.6-74.1.2^[9]

For the Madhyamaka Buddhists, ‘Emptiness’ (also known as Anatta or Anatman) is the strong assertion that:

• all phenomena are empty of any essence;
• anti-essentialism lies at the root of Buddhist praxis; and
• it is the innate belief in essence that is considered to be an afflictive obscuration which serves as the root of all suffering.

However, the Madhyamaka also rejects the tenets of Idealism, Materialism or Nihilism; instead, the ideas of truth or existence, along with any assertions that depend upon them, are limited to their function within the contexts and conventions that assert them, possibly somewhat akin to Relativism or Pragmatism. For the Madhyamaka, replacement paradoxes such as Ship of Theseus are answered by stating that the Ship of Theseus remains so (within the conventions that assert it) until it ceases to function as the Ship of Theseus.

In Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika Chapter XV examines essence itself.

HinduismEdit

In understanding any individual personality, a distinction is made between one’s Swadharma (essence) and Swabhava (mental habits and conditionings of ego personality). Svabhava is the nature of a person, which is a result of his or her samskaras (impressions created in the mind due to one’s interaction with the external world). These samskaras create habits and mental models and those become our nature. While there is another kind of svabhava that is a pure internal quality – smarana – we are here focusing only on the svabhava that was created due to samskaras (because to discover the pure, internal svabhava and smarana, one should become aware of one’s samskaras and take control over them). Dharma is derived from the root dhr «to hold.» It is that which holds an entity together. That is, Dharma is that which gives integrity to an entity and holds the core quality and identity (essence), form and function of that entity. Dharma is also defined as righteousness and duty. To do one’s dharma is to be righteous, to do one’s dharma is to do one’s duty (express one’s essence).^[10]

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

SourcesEdit

External linksEdit

Wikiquote has quotations related to Essence.

• Maurice De Wulf: «Nominalism, Realism, Conceptualism.», in: The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911.
• Robertson, Teresa; Atkins, Philip. «Essential vs. Accidental Properties». In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

What does the word essence mean?

According to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language as well as other dictionaries like Collins English Dictionary and American Heritage, the word essence is a noun that refers to the individual or ultimate nature of something as opposed to its existence. This could be the most significant element, quality, or aspect of some person or thing, or someone that possesses or exhibits said quality in abundance, like a concentrate. The word essence implies an essential part and unchanging nature of a thing or person, a vital part of some idea or immaterial entity, or the predominant qualities or central meaning of someone or something. These indispensable qualities never change. The word essence is also used to refer to oils or constituents that are derived from a plant, such as an essential oil, infusion, scent, odor or perfume. Essences like a French essence take the predominant qualities of a plant and complete a distillation process to break this down to its true substance. This natural product can be used for scent or flavour. You may hear the word essence in the phrases in essence or of the essence. Essence is discussed in literary work and theology by Aristotle. The pronunciation of essence is ˈɛsəns. The adjective form of essence is essential.

Many different languages also contain words that mean essence. You may notice that some of these words look and sound similar to the word essence. These are called cognates, which are usually formed when two words have the same root or language of origin. This list of translations of essence is provided by Word Sense.

•  Swahili: mchakato‎
•  Italian: essenza‎ (fem.)
•  Czech: esence‎ (fem.)
•  Estonian: olemus‎
•  Roman: bit‎ (fem.), suština‎ (fem.)
•  Cyrillic: бит‎ (masc.), суштина‎ (fem.)
•  Uzbek: mohiyat‎
•  Hungarian: lényeg‎
•  Japanese: 本質‎ (ほんしつ, honshitsu)
•  Danish: essens‎ (common)
•  Dutch: essentie‎
•  Ukrainian: су́тність‎ (fem.), суть‎ (fem.)
•  Maori: tino‎
•  Azeri: cövhər‎, mahiyyət‎
•  Portuguese: essência‎ (fem.)
•  Swedish: essens‎ (common)
•  Macedonian: суштина‎ (fem.)
•  Latin: substantia‎ (fem.)
•  Polish: esencja‎ (fem.)
•  Bulgarian: съ̀щност‎ (fem.)
•  Russian: су́щность‎ (fem.), суть‎ (fem.)
•  Armenian: էություն‎
•  Turkish: cevher‎
•  Hebrew: מַהוּת‎
•  Mandarin: 本質‎, 本质‎ (běnzhì, běnzhí)
•  Slovene: bistvo‎ (neut.)
•  Georgian: არსი‎, დედაარსი‎, რაობა‎
•  Slovak: esencia‎ (fem.)
•  Sorani: جه‌وهه‌ر‎
•  Belarusian: су́тнасць‎ (fem.), суць‎ (fem.)
•  Tajik: ҷавҳар‎
•  French: essence‎ (fem.)
•  Persian: جوهر‎ (jowhar)
•  Spanish: esencia‎ (fem.)
•  Catalan: bessó‎ (masc.)
•  German: Wesen‎ (neut.)
•  Korean: 본질‎
•  Maltese: essenza‎ (fem.)
•  Vietnamese: bản chất‎
•  Finnish: olemus‎, perusolemus‎, villakoiran ydin‎
•  Arabic: جَوْهَر‎ (masc.)

How can the word essence be used in a sentence?

The word essence can be used in many different ways to refer to both the predominant properties of a plant or the inward nature or intrinsic nature of a thing or person. Below are examples of essence.

The chef put a few drops of vanilla essence into one of her famous elixirs. Not only did the foodstuff taste amazing, it had healing properties in the essences.

The speaker wanted to make sure his essence of hospitality and essence of gentility was coming across in his speech. He asked his wife to tell him what she thought the theme of a speech he was writing would be.

The nub of a story that the boy told only showed one perspective, but the essence of the story was the opposite, in actuality. 

What are synonyms and antonyms of essence?

There are many different words that a person can choose to use in place of the word essence. These are called synonyms, which have the same definition as another word or phrase. Learning synonyms is a great way to expand your English language vocabulary and avoid repeating yourself. This list of synonyms for the word essence is provided by Thesaurus. 

•  basis
•  fundamentals
•  substance
•  character
•  be-all and end-all
•  gist
•  nub
•  heart
•  quality
•  vein
•  stuff
•  backbone
•  form
•  structure
•  nucleus
•  name of game
•  base
•  quintessence
•  extract
•  pith
•  chief constituent
•  nitty-gritty
•  lifeblood
•  constitution
•  meaning
•  soul
•  crux
•  life
•  core
•  reality
•  bottom
•  nature
•  bottom line
•  essentiality
•  point
•  marrow
•  meat
•  property
•  kernel
•  principle
•  attribute
•  main idea
•  being
•  fiber
•  significance
•  aspect
•  timber
•  virtuality
•  root
•  burden
•  grain
•  caliber
•  element
•  germ
•  essentia
•  quiddity
•  entity
•  spirit

There are also a number of words that have the opposite meaning of essence. These opposite words are called antonyms. Learning antonyms is another quick and easy way to expand your vocabulary. This list of antonyms is also provided by Thesaurus.

•  cover
•  shell
•  face
•  external
•  surface
•  finish
•  exteriority
•  coating
•  polish
•  aspect
•  superficies
•  covering
•  skin
•  rind
•  appearance
•  outside
•  facade
•  superstratum
•  exterior

What is the origin of the word essence?

According to Etymonline, the word essence has been used since the late 14th century in Middle English as essencia. It was later respelled in the late 15th century on the French model of differentia, from differēns, the present participle of differre. This word comes from the Latin essencia and Medieval Latin essentia, from the Greek ousiā/ousa or Greek ousia. This comes from the root essent or essēns, which is the present participle of the word esse, a Latin verb meaning to be, from the Proto-Indo-European root es meaning to be. Related words include essential. The word essence and essential were first used to describe a fragrance, perfume, or oil from plants in the 17th century.  

Overall, the word essence means an abundance of a quality or holding a quality to a high degree in its complete form. It is an invariable nature of a thing, and this unchangeable nature is inherent in the essence of a thing. It can also refer to a neutral product derived from something like the concentrated form of a plant or the alcoholic solution of an essential oil. This word comes from the Middle English essencia and Latin essentia, from the Ancient Greek οὐσία and Indo-European roots.

Sources:

1. essence: meaning, origin, translation | Word Sense 
2. ESSENCE Synonyms: 75 Synonyms & Antonyms for ESSENCE | Thesaurus 
3. EXTERIOR Synonyms: 44 Synonyms & Antonyms for EXTERIOR | Thesaurus 
4. essence | Origin and meaning of essence | Online Etymology Dictionary 

An essence is an attribute or set of attributes which make an entity or substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by necessity, and without which it loses its identity. In systems of philosophy, essence is contrasted with accident — the existence of such properties as the entity or substance has contingently, without which the substance can still retain its identity.

A[edit]

• When we say that God is a spirit, we know what we mean, as well as we do when we say that the pyramids of Egypt are matter. Let us be content, therefore, to believe him to be a spirit, that is, an essence that we know nothing of, in which originally and necessarily reside all energy, all power, all capacity, all activity, all wisdom, all goodness.
  • John Adams, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson (17 January 1820)

• Know that the essence of a person, as such, is quite impossible to perceive without his material embodiment …This is because our five senses and our imagination do not offer us anything more than the revelation of the actions of the essence, but not the essence itself.
  • Yehuda Ashlag, as quoted in «Preface to the Book of Zohar», in Introduction to the Book of Zohar: Volume Two (2005) edited by Michael Laitman, p. 30

• The essence of one’s work is only to come to the sensation of the existence of the Creator, to feel the existence of the Creator, that “the whole earth is full of His glory.”
  • Yehuda Ashlag, as quoted in «The Reason for the Heaviness in the Work», in Kabbalah for the Student (2008), edited by Michael Laitman, p. 193

• Since the essence of the soul is but a will to bestow, and all its manifestations and possessions are fulfillments of that will to bestow … therefore it is immortal and irreplaceable. The soul, with all its manifestations is eternal and exists forever. Absence does not apply to them upon the departure of the body. On the contrary, the absence of the corrupted form of the body, greatly strengthens it, thus enabling it to rise to the Heavens. Thus we have clearly shown that the persistence in no way depends upon the concepts it has acquired, as philosophers claim, but its eternality is in its very essence, meaning in its will to bestow, which is its essence. And the concepts it acquires are its reward, not its essence.
  • Yehuda Ashlag, as quoted in «Introduction to the Book of Zohar», Item 24

B[edit]

• In the Name of God, the Most Exalted, the Most Holy. All praise and glory befitteth the sacred and glorious court of the sovereign Lord, Who from everlasting hath dwelt, and unto everlasting will continue to dwell within the mystery of His Own divine Essence, Who from time immemorial hath abided and will forever continue to abide within His transcendent eternity, exalted above the reach and ken of all created beings.
  • The Báb, in The Persian Bayán, I, 1

• I swear by the most holy Essence of God — exalted and glorified be He — that in the Day of the appearance of Him Whom God shall make manifest a thousand perusals of the Bayán cannot equal the perusal of a single verse to be revealed by Him Whom God shall make manifest.
  • The Báb, in The Persian Bayán, V, 8

• Fire and paradise both bow down and prostrate themselves before God. That which is worthy of His Essence is to worship Him for His sake, without fear of fire, or hope of paradise.
  • The Báb, in The Persian Bayán, VII, 19

• The Buddhists maintain that there is no Creator but an infinitude of creative powers, which collectively form the one eternal substance, the essence of which is inscrutable — hence not a subject for speculation for any true philosopher.
  • Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, in Isis Unveiled Volume II, Chapter VI

• It is manifest… that every soul and spirit hath a certain continuity with the spirit of the universe, so that it must be understood to exist and to be included not only there where it liveth and feeleth, but it is also by its essence and substance diffused throughout immensity… The power of each soul is itself somehow present afar in the universe… Naught is mixed, yet is there some presence.
  Anything we take in the universe, because it has in itself that which is All in All, includes in its own way the entire soul of the world, which is entirely in any part of it.
  • Giordano Bruno, in De la Causa, Principio e Uno (1584) [Cause, Principle, and Unity] (1584)

• I understand Being in all and over all, as there is nothing without participation in Being, and there is no being without Essence. Thus nothing can be free of the Divine Presence.
  • Giordano Bruno, as quoted in «Giordano Bruno» — Theosophy Vol. 26, No. 8 (June 1938)

• Divinity reveals herself in all things… everything has Divinity latent within itself. For she enfolds and imparts herself even unto the smallest beings, and from the smallest beings, according to their capacity. Without her presence nothing would have being, because she is the essence of the existence of the first unto the last being.
  • Giordano Bruno, in Spaccio de la bestia trionfante (1584) [The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast] as translated by Arthur Imerti (1964)

• One must love humanity in order to reach out into the unique essence of each individual: no one can be too low or too ugly.
  • Georg Büchner, in Lenz (1835)

C[edit]

• We arrive at the point where we, looking over the hundred and twenty five years of independence, can see that the simple government conceived by the revolutionary republicans was a foredoomed failure. It was so because of: 1) the essence of government itself; 2) the essence of human nature; 3) the essence of Commerce and Manufacture. … As to the essence of human nature, what our national experience has made plain is this, that to remain in a continually exalted moral condition is not human nature. That has happened which was prophesied: we have gone down hill from the Revolution until now; we are absorbed in «mere money-getting.»
  • Voltairine de Cleyre, in «Anarchism & American Traditions» in Mother Earth (December 1908/January 1909)

• Those who, by the essence of their belief, are committed to Direct Action only are — just who? Why, the non-resistants; precisely those who do not believe in violence at all!
  • Voltairine de Cleyre, in «Direct Action», Address in Chicago (21 January 1912); published in Mother Earth (1912)

• Action in its essence, the creative art of a writer of fiction may be compared to rescue work carried out in darkness against cross gusts of wind swaying the action of a great multitude.
  • Joseph Conrad, in Henry James — An Appreciation (1905)

D[edit]

• Like Teresa of Avila, Kazantzakis indicates that behind all appearances lies a struggling divine essence (the «Invisible») that is striving to merge with our hearts just as the mystic is striving to merge with God’s. Nonetheless God’s striving is on a cosmic scale such that there is something trivial involved when we push anthropocentric images too far in our description of God.
  • Daniel A. Dombrowski, in Kazantzakis and God (1997), p. 87

E[edit]

• If there is any such concept as a God, it is a subtle spirit, not an image of a man that so many have fixed in their minds. In essence, my religion consists of a humble admiration for this illimitable superior spirit that reveals itself in the slight details that we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble minds.
  • Albert Einstein, as quoted in The Private Albert Einstein (1992) by Peter A. Bucky and Allen G. Weakland, p. 86

F[edit]

• Let it be remembered that atheism — at least in the sense of this work — is the secret of religion itself; that religion itself, not indeed on the surface, but fundamentally, not in intention or according to its own supposition, but in its heart, in its essence, believes in nothing else than the truth and divinity of human nature.
  • Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, in The Essence of Christianity (1841), Preface

• The present age… prefers the sign to the thing signified, the copy to the original, fancy to reality, the appearance to the essence… for in these days illusion only is sacred, truth profane.
  • Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach, in The Essence of Christianity, Preface to Second Edition (1843)

G[edit]

• Names and attributes must be accommodated to the essence of things, and not the essence to the names, since things come first and names afterwards.
  • Galileo Galilei, as quoted in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo (1957) by Stillman Drake, p. 92

H[edit]

• It is the very nature and essence of religion to raise men, peoples, and nations, above the common level of life, to break through its ordinary bounds, and express itself in a thousand ways, in poetry, painting, music, sculpture, and in every other form of ideal expression. The splendid monuments of the genius and greatness of by-gone ages are the monuments inspired by their religion.
  • Isaac Hecker, Aspirations of Nature (1857) ch. 8, p. 46.

• As the essence of Matter is Gravity, so, on the other hand, we may affirm that the substance, the essence of Spirit is Freedom. All will readily assent to the doctrine that Spirit, among other properties, is also endowed with Freedom; but philosophy teaches that all the qualities of Spirit exist only through Freedom; that all are but means for attaining Freedom; that all seek and produce this and this alone.
  • Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, in Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1832)

• What we call principle, aim, destiny, or the nature and idea of Spirit, is something merely general and abstract. Principle — Plan of Existence — Law — is a hidden, undeveloped essence, which as such — however true in itself — is not completely real.
  • Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, in Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1832)

• There is an idea that technology is in its essence something human beings have under their control. In my opinion, that is not possible. Technology is in its essence something that human beings cannot master of their own accord.
  • Martin Heidegger, interviewed by Rudolf Augstein and Georg Wolff (23 September 1966), published in Der Spiegel (31 May 1976)
  • Variant translation: In its essence, technology is something that man does not control.

• Perhaps I may risk this statement: The secret of the planetary predominance of the unthought essence of technology corresponds to the preliminariness and inconspiciousness of the thinking that attempts to reflect upon this unthought essence.
  • Martin Heidegger, interviewed by Rudolf Augstein and Georg Wolff (23 September 1966), published in Der Spiegel (31 May 1976)

I[edit]

J[edit]

K[edit]

• «I do not know whether behind appearances there lives and moves a secret essence superior to me. Nor do I ask; I do not care. I create phenomena in swarms, and paint with a full palette a gigantic and gaudy curtain before the abyss. Do not say, «Draw the curtain that I may see the painting.» The curtain is the painting.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, in Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God] (1923) translated by Kimon Friar as The Saviors of God : Spiritual Exercises (1960), The Preparation : First Duty

• Behind all appearances, I divine a struggling essence. I want to merge with it.
  I feel that behind appearances this struggling essence is also striving to merge with my heart. But the body stands between us and separates us. The mind stands between us and separates us.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, in Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God] (1923) translated by Kimon Friar as The Saviors of God : Spiritual Exercises(1960), The Preparation : Second Duty

• Free yourself from the simple complacency of the mind that thinks to put all things in order and hopes to subdue phenomena. Free yourself from the terror of the heart that seeks and hopes to find the essence of things.
  Conquer the last, the greatest temptation of all: Hope. This is the third duty.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, in Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God] (1923) translated by Kimon Friar as The Saviors of God : Spiritual Exercises(1960), The Preparation : Third Duty

• Pain is not the only essence of our God, nor is hope in a future life or a life on this earth, neither joy nor victory. Every religion that holds up to worship one of these primordial aspects of God narrows our hearts and our minds.
  The essence of our God is STRUGGLE. Pain, joy, and hope unfold and labor within this struggle, world without end.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, in Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God] (1923) translated by Kimon Friar as The Saviors of God : Spiritual Exercises(1960), The Vision

• What is the purpose of this struggle? This is what the wretched self-seeking mind of man is always asking, forgetting that the Great Spirit does not toil within the bounds of human time, place, or casualty.
  The Great Spirit is superior to these human questionings. It teems with many rich and wandering drives which to our shallow minds seem contradictory; but in the essence of divinity they fraternize and struggle together, faithful comrades-in-arms.
  The primordial Spirit branches out, overflows, struggles, fails, succeeds, trains itself. It is the Rose of the Winds.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, in Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God] (1923) translated by Kimon Friar as The Saviors of God : Spiritual Exercises(1960), The Vision

• We have seen the highest circle of spiraling powers. We have named this circle God. We might have given it any other name we wished: Abyss, Mystery, Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light, Matter, Spirit, Ultimate Hope, Ultimate Despair, Silence.
  But we have named it God because only this name, for primordial reasons, can stir our hearts profoundly. And this deeply felt emotion is indispensable if we are to touch, body with body, the dread essence beyond logic.
  Within this gigantic circle of divinity we are in duty bound to separate and perceive clearly the small, burning arc of our epoch.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, in Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God] (1923) translated by Kimon Friar as The Saviors of God : Spiritual Exercises(1960), The Action : The Relationship Between God and Man

• I do not care what face other ages and other people have given to the enormous, faceless essence. They have crammed it with human virtues, with rewards and punishments, with certain ties. They have given a face to their hopes and fears, they have submitted their anarchy to a rhythm, they have found a higher justification by which to live and labor. They have fulfilled their duty.
  But today we have gone beyond these needs; we have shattered this particular mask of the Abyss; our God no longer fits under the old features.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, in Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God] (1923) translated by Kimon Friar as The Saviors of God : Spiritual Exercises(1960), The Action : The Relationship Between God and Man

• What is the essence of our God? The struggle for freedom. In the indestructible darkness a flaming line ascends and emblazons the march of the Invisible. What is our duty? To ascend with this blood-drenched line.
  Whatever rushes upward and helps God to ascend is good. Whatever drags downward and impedes God from ascending is evil.
  All virtues and all evils take on a new value. They are freed from the moment and from earth, they exist completely within man, before and after man, eternally.
  For the essence of our ethic is not the salvation of man, who varies within time and space, but the salvation of God, who within a wide variety of flowing human forms and adventures is always the same, the indestructible rhythm which battles for freedom.
  We, as human beings, are all miserable persons, heartless, small, insignificant. But within us a superior essence drives us ruthlessly upward.
  From within this human mire divine songs have welled up, great ideas, violent loves, an unsleeping assault full of mystery, without beginning or end, without purpose, beyond every purpose.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, in Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God] (1923) translated by Kimon Friar as The Saviors of God : Spiritual Exercises(1960), The Action : The Relationship Between Man and Man

• We are all one, we are all an imperiled essence. If at the far end of the world a spirit degenerates, it drags down our spirit into its own degradation. If one mind at the far end of the world sinks into idiocy, our own temples over-brim with darkness.
  For it is only One who struggles at the far end of earth and sky. One. And if He goes lost, it is we who must bear the responsibility. If He goes lost, then we go lost.
  This is why the salvation of the Universe is also our salvation, why solidarity among men is no longer a tenderhearted luxury but a deep necessity and self-preservation, as much a necessity as, in an army under fire, the salvation of your comrade-in-arms.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, in Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God] (1923) translated by Kimon Friar as The Saviors of God : Spiritual Exercises(1960), The Action : The Relationship Between Man and Man

• The essence of our God is obscure. It ripens continuously; perhaps victory is strenghened with our every valorous deed, but perhaps even all these agonizing struggles toward deliverance and victory are inferior to the nature of divinity.
  Whatever it might be, we fight on without certainty, and our virtue, uncertain of any rewards, acquires a profound nobility.
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, in Ασκητική. Salvatores dei [Ascesis : The Saviors of God] (1923) translated by Kimon Friar as The Saviors of God : Spiritual Exercises(1960), The Action : The Relationship Between Man and Man

• Everything which comes into-existence proves precisely by coming into existence that it is not necessary, for the only thing which cannot come into existence is the necessary, because the necessary is. Is not necessity then a synthesis of possibility and actuality? What could this mean? Possibility and actuality do not differ in essence but in being; how could there from this difference be formed a synthesis constituting necessity, which is not a determination of being but a determination of essence, since it is the essence of the necessary to be.
  • Søren Kierkegaard, in Philosophical Fragments (1844), The Case of the Contemporary Disciple

• No question is here raised as to the true content of this; the question is if one will give assent to the God’s having come into existence, by which the God’s eternal essence is inflected in the dialectical determinations of coming into existence.
  • Søren Kierkegaard, in Philosophical Fragments (1844), The Case of the Contemporary Disciple

• Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women, er, women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake … but I do deny them my essence.
  • Stanley Kubrick, Terry Southern, and Peter George, in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

L[edit]

M[edit]

• My opinion is this: the cause of the error of all these schools is their belief that God’s knowledge is like ours; each school points to something withheld from our knowledge, and either assumes that the same must be the case in God’s knowledge, or at least finds some difficulty how to explain it. …they likewise demonstrated… that our intellect and our knowledge are insufficient to comprehend the true idea of His essence. …they came to the absurd conclusion that that which is required for our knowledge is also required for God’s knowledge.
  • Maimonides, in Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Ch. 20

• He fully knows His unchangeable essence, and has thus a knowledge of all that results from any of His acts. If we were to try to understand in what manner this is done, it would be the same as if we tried to be the same as God, and to make our knowledge identical with His knowledge. Those who seek the truth, and admit what is true, must believe that nothing is hidden from God; that everything is revealed to His knowledge, which is identical with His essence; that this kind of knowledge cannot be comprehended by us; for if we knew its method, we would possess that intellect by which such knowledge could be acquired.
  • Maimonides, in Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190), Ch. 21

• If you say that you reject violence when it exceeds the limits imposed by the needs of defense, they accuse you of pacifism, without understanding that violence is the whole essence of authoritarianism, just as the repudiation of violence is the whole essence of anarchism.
  • Errico Malatesta, «Anarchism, Authoritarian Socialism and Communism» in Fede (28 October 1923); also in What Is Anarchism? : An Introduction edited by Donald Rooum (1992, 1995) p. 59

N[edit]

• «Appearance» is a word that contains many temptations, which is why I avoid it as much as possible. For it is not true that the essence of things «appears» in the empirical world. A painter without hands who wished to express in song the picture before his mind would, by means of this substitution of spheres, still reveal more about the essence of things than does the empirical world.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche, in On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)

O[edit]

P[edit]

Q[edit]

R[edit]

• Mysticism is, in essence, little more than a certain intensity and depth of feeling in regard to what is believed about the universe.
  • Bertrand Russell, in Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1918), Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic

• The essence of liberalism is an attempt to secure a social order not based on irrational dogma, and insuring stability without involving more restraints than are necessary for the preservation of the community.
  • Bertrand Russell, in A History of Western Philosophy (1945), Introductory, p. xxiii

• The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment.
  • Bertrand Russell, in Unpopular Essays (1950)

• Things may have a real essence, which will consist of their physical constitution, but this is in the main unknown to us, and is not the «essence» of which scholastics speak. Essence as we can know it is purely verbal; it consists merely in the definition of a general term.
  • Bertrand Russell, in A History of Western Philosophy (1945), Book Three, Part I, Chapter XIII, Locke’s Theory of Knowledge, p. 610

• The love of God is not only to be considered as flowing out with all good and drawing in into unity, but it is also above all distinction in essential enjoyment according to the bare essence of the Divinity. And for this reason enlightened people have found within themselves an essential inward gazing above reason and without reason, and an enjoyable inclination surpassing all modes (methods or systems) and all essence, sinking away from themselves into a modeless abyss of fathomless beatitude, where the Trinity of the divine Persons possess their nature in essential unity.
  • John Ruysbroeck, in The Little Book of Enlightenment by Bernard McGinn in The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism

• See, here the beatitude is so simple and so without mode that therein all essential gazing, inclination and distinction of creatures pass away. For all spirits thus raised up melt away and are annihilated by reason of enjoyment in God’s essence, which is the superessence of all essence. There they fall away from themselves and are lost in a bottomless unknowing.
  • John Ruysbroeck, in The Little Book of Enlightenment by Bernard McGinn in The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism

S[edit]

• The essences of the Gods never came into existence (for that which always is never comes into existence; and that exists for ever which possesses primary force and by nature suffers nothing): neither do they consist of bodies; for even in bodies the powers are incorporeal. Neither are they contained by space; for that is a property of bodies. Neither are they separate from the first cause nor from one another, just as thoughts are not separate from mind nor acts of knowledge from the soul.
  • Sallustius, in On the Gods and the Cosmos, II. That God is unchanging, unbegotten, eternal, incorporeal, and not in space.
  • Variant translation:
  • The essences of the gods are neither generated; for eternal natures are without generation; and those beings are eternal who possess a first power, and are naturally void of passivity. Nor are their essences composed from bodies; for even the powers of bodies are incorporeal: nor are they comprehended in place; for this is the property of bodies: nor are they separated from the first cause, or from each other; in the same manner as intellections are not separated from intellect, nor sciences from the soul.
    • II. That a God is immutable, without Generation, eternal, incorporeal, and has no Subsistence in Place, as translated by Thomas Taylor

• Of myths some are theological, some physical, some psychic, and again some material, and some mixed from these last two. The theological are those myths which use no bodily form but contemplate the very essence of the Gods: e.g., Kronos swallowing his children. Since god is intellectual, and all intellect returns into itself, this myth expresses in allegory the essence of god.
  • Sallustius, in On the Gods and the Cosmos, IV. That the species of myth are five, with examples of each.

• Of the Gods some are of the world, cosmic, and some above the world, hypercosmic. By the cosmic I mean those who make the cosmos. Of the hypercosmic Gods some create essence, some mind, and some soul.
  • Sallustius, in On the Gods and the Cosmos, VI. On Gods Cosmic and Hypercosmic

• The soul sins therefore because, while aiming at good, it makes mistakes about the good, because it is not primary essence. And we see many things done by the Gods to prevent it from making mistakes and to heal it when it has made them.
  • Sallustius, in On the Gods and the Cosmos, XII. The origin of evil things; and that there is no positive evil

• I spoke to over 140 songwriters whose work Presley recorded, and most remarked about his uncanny ability to capture the essence and make it his own; like a musical geneticist, he drew from every strand of DNA in a songwriter’s work, which ultimately helped shape his own distinctive personal interpretation; just listen to the wide stylistic swath of genre-hopping material he recorded during his career … you can hear the breath of a master stylist who breathed new life into every song he cut.
  • Ken Sharp, in the introduction to «Writing for the King : The Songs and Writers Behind Them» (2006)

• A definition, if it is to be called perfect, must explain the inmost essence of a thing, and must take care not to substitute for this any of its properties. In order to illustrate my meaning, without taking an example which would seem to show a desire to expose other people’s errors, I will choose the case of something abstract, the definition of which is of little moment. Such is a circle. If a circle be defined as a figure, such that all straight lines drawn from the center to the circumference are equal, every one can see that such a definition does not in the least explain the essence of a circle, but solely one of its properties. Though, as I have said, this is of no importance in the case of figures and other abstractions, it is of great importance in the case of physical beings and realities: for the properties of things are not understood so long as their essences are unknown. If the latter be passed over, there is necessarily a perversion of the succession of ideas which should reflect the succession of nature, and we go far astray from our object.
  • Baruch Spinoza, in [[s:On the Improvement of the Understanding|Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione [On the Improvement of the Understanding] (1662)

• By that which is self-caused, I mean that of which the essence involves existence, or that of which the nature is only conceivable as existent.
  • Baruch Spinoza, in Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order (1677), Part I : Concerning God, Definition 1

• By God, I mean a being absolutely infinite — that is, a substance consisting in infinite attributes, of which each expresses eternal and infinite essentiality.
  Explanation — I say absolutely infinite, not infinite after its kind: for, of a thing infinite only after its kind, infinite attributes may be denied; but that which is absolutely infinite, contains in its essence whatever expresses reality, and involves no negation.
  • Baruch Spinoza, in Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order (1677), Part I : Concerning God, Definition 6

• By eternity, I mean existence itself, in so far as it is conceived necessarily to follow solely from the definition of that which is eternal.
  Explanation — Existence of this kind is conceived as an eternal truth, like the essence of a thing, and, therefore, cannot be explained by means of continuance or time, though continuance may be conceived without a beginning or end.
  • Baruch Spinoza, in Ethics, Demonstrated in Geometrical Order (1677), Part I : Concerning God, Definition 8

• The human mind has an adequate knowledge of the eternal and infinite essence of God.
  • Baruch Spinoza, Ethics (1677) Part II: On the Nature and Origin of the Mind.

• True morality, true philosophy and true art are in their essence religious.
  • African Spir, in Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 40

T[edit]

U[edit]

• If ether is nothing but an hypothesis explanatory of light, air on the other hand, is a thing that is directly felt; and even if it did not enable us to explain the phenomenon of sound, we should nevertheless always be directly aware of it, and above all, of the lack of it in moments of suffocation or air-hunger. And in the same way God Himself, not the idea of God, may become a reality that is immediately felt; and even though the idea of God does not enable us to explain either the existence or essence of the Universe, we have at times the direct feeling of God, above all in moments of spiritual suffocation. And the feeling, mark it well, for all that is tragic in it and the whole tragic sense of life is founded upon this — this feeling is a feeling of hunger for God, of the lack of God. To believe in God is, in the first instance… to wish that there may be a God, to be unable to live without Him.
  • Miguel de Unamuno, in The Tragic Sense of Life (1913), as translated by J. E. Crawford Flitch (1921), VIII : From God to God

• Killing time is perhaps the essence of comedy, just as the essence of tragedy is killing eternity.
  • Miguel de Unamuno, in San Manuel Bueno, Mártir [Saint Manuel the Good, Martyr] (1933)

V[edit]

W[edit]

• Prestige, which is illusion, is of the very essence of power.
  • Simone Weil, in The Power of Words (1937)

• Those who keep the masses of men in subjection by exercising force and cruelty deprive them at once of two vital foods, liberty and obedience; for it is no longer within the power of such masses to accord their inner consent to the authority to which they are subjected. Those who encourage a state of things in which the hope of gain is the principal motive take away from men their obedience, for consent which is its essence is not something which can be sold.
  • Simone Weil, in The Needs of the Soul (1949)

X[edit]

Y[edit]

Z[edit]

• To define is to lose. The essence of all things is the Nameless. The Nameless is unknowable, mightier even than Brahma. Things pass, but the essence remains. You sit, therefore, in the midst of a dream. Essence dreams it a dream of form. Forms pass, but the essence remains, dreaming new dreams. Man names these dreams and thinks to have captured the essence, not knowing that he invokes the unreal. These stones, these walls, these bodies you see seated about you are poppies and water and the sun. They are the dreams of the Nameless.
  • Roger Zelazny, in Lord of Light (1967)

See also[edit]

• Identity
• Meaning
• Purpose
• Semiotics
• Soul
• Spirit

External links[edit]

Last Updated:
8 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

Last Update: Jan 03, 2023

This is a question our experts keep getting from time to time. Now, we have got the complete detailed explanation and answer for everyone, who is interested!

Asked by: Jordi Heathcote

Score: 4.5/5
(39 votes)

noun. es·​sence | ˈe-sᵊn(t)s Essential Meaning of essence. 1 : the basic nature of a thing : the quality or qualities that make a thing what it is The essence of love is unselfishness.

What does essence mean example?

Essence is defined as the core nature or most important qualities of a person or thing. … The definition of an essence is a concentrated form of a flavor or fragrance. An example of an essence is the scent of a tropical flower in a vial of oil.

What is called essence?

noun. the basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing or its significant individual feature or features: Freedom is the very essence of our democracy. a substance obtained from a plant, drug, or the like, by distillation, infusion, etc., and containing its characteristic properties in concentrated form.

What does the very essence mean?

the very essence of (humanity): the fundamental nature of, the truest or purest part of (humanity)

How do you use the word essence?

Essence sentence example

26 related questions found

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From 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[edit]

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

Noun[edit]

essence (countable and uncountable, plural essences)

2. 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.

   • 1824, Walter Savage Landor, “Oliver Cromwel and Walter Noble”, in Imaginary Conversations, volume I, 2nd edition, London: Henry Colburn, published 1826, page 105:

     They [the laws] are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labours under ; the scorn of the wicked, the consternation of the good, the refuge of those who violate, and the ruin of those who appeal to them.
3. (philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
4. Constituent substance.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 423–429:

     For Spirits when they pleaſe / Can either Sex aſſume, or both ; ſo ſoft / And uncompounded is their Eſſence pure, / Not ti’d or manacl’d with joynt or limb, / Nor founded on the brittle ſtrength of bones, / Like cumbrous fleſh […]

5. A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 132–139:

     And put to proof his high Supremacy, / Whether upheld by ſtrength, or Chance, or Fate, / Too well I ſee and rue the dire event, / That with ſad overthrow and foul defeat / Hath loſt us Heav’n, and all this mighty Hoſt / In horrible deſtruction laid thus low, / As far as Gods and Heav’nly Eſſences / Can Periſh.

   • 1824, Washington Irving, “The Adventure of the German Student”, in The Works of Washington Irving, volume VII, new edition, New York: G. P. Putnam & Company, published 1853, page 55:

     He [Gottfried Wolfgang] had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences, until, like Swedenborg, he had an ideal world of his own around him.

6. A significant feature of something.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

7. The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.

   essence of Jojoba

8. An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring, or as a restorative.
   • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 150:

     There was no one to cook the necessary food that the invalids required to pick up their strength; no fowls to be bought, to make into the essence that is so generally given to fever patients wherever I have been since.

   vanilla essence

9. Fragrance, a perfume.

   • 1712, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Beauties of Pope, London: G. Kearsley, published 1783, page 36:

     Our humbler province is to tend the Fair, / Not a leſs pleaſing, tho’ leſs glorious care ; / To ſave the powder from too rude a gale, / Nor let th’ impriſon’d eſſences exhale […]

Synonyms[edit]

• (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[edit]

[edit]

• essential
• essentially
• essentialism
• quintessential

Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

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

Anagrams[edit]

• senesce

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

• IPA^(key): /e.sɑ̃s/, /ɛ.sɑ̃s/

Noun[edit]

essence f (plural essences)

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

Derived terms[edit]

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

Descendants[edit]

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

Further reading[edit]

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

Anagrams[edit]

• censées

• 1
  essence
  
  

  1) су́щность, существо́;

  2) экстра́кт, эссе́нция

  3) арома́т

  Англо-русский словарь Мюллера > essence

• 2
  essence
  
  

  Персональный Сократ > essence

• 3
  essence
  
  

  essence 1. субстанция; 2. сущность; 3. отличительный признак

  English-Russian dictionary of biology and biotechnology > essence

• 4
  essence
  
  

  [ˈesns]

  essence аромат essence авто бензин essence уст. духи essence существо essence существование essence сущность, существо; in essence по существу; of the essence существенно essence сущность essence экстракт, эссенция essence сущность, существо; in essence по существу; of the essence существенно essence сущность, существо; in essence по существу; of the essence существенно

  English-Russian short dictionary > essence

• 5
  essence
  
  

  ˈesns сущ.
  1) существо, сущность the essence of life ≈ сущность жизни The essence of consultation is to listen to, and take account of, the views of those consulted. ≈ Существо консультации заключается в выслушивании и принятии во внимание мнения консультирующего. Others claim that Ireland’s very essence is expressed through the language. ≈ Другие утверждают, что самая сущность Ирландии проявляется в ее языке. in essence of the essence the very essence Syn: entity
  2) существование Syn: existence, entity
  3) экстракт, эссенция exotic bath essences ≈ экзотический экстракт для ванн
  4) квинтэссенция She was the essence of punctuality. ≈ Она была верхом пунктуальности. It was a perfect love-letter, that is to say, it was the essence of nonsense. ≈ Это было совершенное любовное письмо, так сказать, чистейшая чепуха.
  5) аромат;
  уст. духи Syn: odor, perfume
  1.
  сущность, существо — in * по существу, в сущности — the * of the proposal существо предложения — * of crime сущность преступления — to be of the * быть существенно важным, относиться к существу дела( философское) сущность (философское) субстанция — fifth * пятый элемент, пятая стихия, основная сущность вещей, квинтэссенция ( у древних греков) квинтэссенция;
  верх (чего-либо) — the * of nonsense сущий вздор, полная бессмыслица эссенция;
  экстракт — meat * мясной экстракт — pear * грушевая эссенция существо, создание — heavenly *s небесные создания, духи небес духи;
  аромат спиртовой раствор летучее масло, эфирное масло( автомобильное) (профессионализм) бензин
  essence аромат ~ авто бензин ~ уст. духи ~ существо ~ существование ~ сущность, существо;
  in essence по существу;
  of the essence существенно ~ сущность ~ экстракт, эссенция
  ~ сущность, существо;
  in essence по существу;
  of the essence существенно
  ~ сущность, существо;
  in essence по существу;
  of the essence существенно

  Большой англо-русский и русско-английский словарь > essence

• 6
  essence
  
  

  1. n сущность, существо

  2. n филос. субстанция

  fifth essence — пятый элемент, пятая стихия, основная сущность вещей, квинтэссенция

  3. n филос. квинтэссенция; верх

  4. n филос. эссенция; экстракт

  5. n филос. существо, создание

  6. n филос. духи; аромат

  7. n филос. спиртовой раствор

  8. n филос. летучее масло, эфирное масло

  9. n филос. авт. проф. бензин

  Синонимический ряд:

  3. distilled spirits (noun) alcohol; distillated spirits; distillation; distilled spirits; juice; liquor; spirit; spirits

  4. heart (noun) basic nature; basis; be-all and end-all; being; bottom; core; essentia; essential quality; essentiality; gist; heart; kernel; marrow; meat; nature; nub; pith; principle; quintessence; quintessential; rock bottom; root; soul; stuff; substance; sum and substance; texture; virtuality

  English-Russian base dictionary > essence

• 7
  essence
  
  

  [ʹes(ə)ns]

  1. сущность, существо

  in essence — по существу, в сущности

  essence of crime — сущность /существенное качество/ преступления

  to be of the essence — быть существенно важным, относиться к существу дела

  1) сущность

  2) субстанция

  fifth essence — пятый элемент, пятая стихия, основная сущность вещей, квинтэссенция ()

  3. квинтэссенция; верх ()

  the essence of nonsense — сущий вздор, полная бессмыслица

  4. эссенция; экстракт

  5. существо, создание

  heavenly essences — небесные создания, духи небес

  6. духи; аромат

  7. 1) спиртовой раствор

  2) летучее масло, эфирное масло

  НБАРС > essence

• 8
  essence
  
  

  [‘es(ə)n(t)s]

  сущ.

  1) существо, сущность

  The essence of consultation is to listen to, and take account of, the views of those consulted. — Суть консультации заключается в выслушивании и принятии во внимание мнения консультируемых.

  Others consider that Ireland’s very essence is expressed through the language. — Некоторые утверждают, что самая сущность Ирландии проявляется в её языке.

  
  — of the essence
  — the very essence

  Syn:

  Syn:

  3) экстракт, эссенция

  She was the essence of punctuality. — Она была сама пунктуальность.

  It was a perfect love-letter, that is to say, it was the essence of nonsense. — Это было самое настоящее любовное письмо, иными словами, — полнейшая чепуха.

  5) аромат; духи

  Syn:

  Англо-русский современный словарь > essence

• 9
  essence
  
  

  Англо-русский синонимический словарь > essence

• 10
  essence
  
  

  n

  1) сущность, существо; суть

  2)

  филос.

  сущность; субстрат

  •

  English-russian dctionary of diplomacy > essence

• 11
  essence
  
  

  English-Russian big polytechnic dictionary > essence

• 12
  essence
  
  

  English-Russian big medical dictionary > essence

• 13
  essence
  
  

  Patent terms dictionary > essence

• 14
  essence
  
  

  Англо-русский словарь технических терминов > essence

• 15
  essence
  
  

  Англо-русский технический словарь > essence

• 16
  essence
  
  

  n

  сущность; существо; суть

  to conceal / to veil the essence — скрывать сущность

  
  — in essence

  Politics english-russian dictionary > essence

• 17
  essence
  
  

  noun

  1) сущность, существо; in essence по существу; of the essence существенно

  2) существование

  3) экстракт, эссенция

  5) аромат

  * * *

  (n) суть; существо; сущность

  * * *

  сущность, существо; эссенция

  * * *

  [es·sence || ‘esns]
  сущность, существо; эссенция, экстракт; духи, аромат; бензин

  * * *

  аромат

  суть

  существо

  существование

  сущность

  экстракт

  эссенция

  * * *

  1) существо
  2) существование
  3) экстракт

  Новый англо-русский словарь > essence

• 18
  essence
  
  

  English-russian dctionary of contemporary Economics > essence

• 19
  essence
  
  

  1. эфирное масло

  2. отдушивать

  The English-Russian dictionary general scientific > essence

• 20
  essence
  
  

  [‘es(ə)ns]

  1) Общая лексика: аромат, бензин, суть, существо , существование, сущность, экстракт, эссенция, духи, существенные условия , смысл , квинтэссенция

  5) Сельское хозяйство: отдушка

  Дипломатический термин: субстрат

  Универсальный англо-русский словарь > essence

es·sence

(ĕs′əns)

n.

1.

a. The intrinsic or indispensable quality or qualities that serve to characterize or identify something: The essence of democracy is the freedom to choose.

b. Philosophy The inherent, unchanging nature of a thing or class of things, especially as contrasted with its existence.

2. The most important part or aspect of something: The essence of her argument is that the policy is wrongheaded.

3.

a. An extract that has the fundamental properties of a substance in concentrated form.

b. Such an extract in a solution of alcohol.

c. A perfume or scent.

4. One that has or shows an abundance of a quality as if highly concentrated: a neighbor who is the essence of hospitality.

5. Something that exists, especially a spiritual or incorporeal entity.

Idioms:

in essence

By nature; essentially: He is in essence a reclusive sort.

of the essence

Of the greatest importance; crucial: Time is of the essence.

---

[Middle English

essencia

and French

essence

, both from Latin

essentia

, from

esse

, to be, from the presumed present participle *

essēns

,

*essent-

(on the model of

differentia

, difference, from

differēns

,

different-

, present participle of

differre

, to differ), created to translate Greek

ousiā

(from

ousa

, feminine present participle of

einai

, to be) ; see

es-

in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

essence

(ˈɛsəns)

n

1. the characteristic or intrinsic feature of a thing, which determines its identity; fundamental nature

2. the most distinctive element of a thing: the essence of a problem.

3. a perfect or complete form of something, esp a person who typifies an abstract quality: he was the essence of gentility.

4. (Philosophy) philosophy

a. the unchanging and unchangeable nature of something which is necessary to its being the thing it is; its necessary properties. Compare accident⁴

b. the properties in virtue of which something is called by its name

c. the nature of something as distinct from, and logically prior to, its existence

5. (Theology) theol an immaterial or spiritual entity

6. (Botany)

a. the constituent of a plant, usually an oil, alkaloid, or glycoside, that determines its chemical or pharmacological properties

b. an alcoholic solution of such a substance

7. (Chemistry) a substance, usually a liquid, containing the properties of a plant or foodstuff in concentrated form: vanilla essence.

9. in essence essentially; fundamentally

10. of the essence indispensable; vitally important

[C14: from Medieval Latin essentia, from Latin: the being (of something), from esse to be]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

es•sence

(ˈɛs əns)

n.

1. the basic, real, and invariable nature of a thing; substance.

2. a concentrated substance obtained from a plant, drug, or the like, by distillation, infusion, etc.

3. an alcoholic solution of an essential oil; spirit.

4. a perfume; scent.

5. (in philosophy) the true nature or constitution of anything, as opposed to what is accidental, phenomenal, illusory, etc.

6. something that exists, esp. a spiritual or immaterial entity.

Idioms:

1. in essence, essentially; basically.

2. of the essence, absolutely essential; crucial.

[1350–1400; Middle English essencia < Medieval Latin, for Latin essentia, irreg. derivative of esse to be]

Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

Essence

 

in a nutshell Concisely, tersely, pithily; briefly, simply, in few words; containing much of substance in a small space, as nutmeat within a nutshell. Nutshell as representative of conciseness has been in use since the 17th century; the phrase in a nutshell since shortly thereafter.

A great complex argument, which … cannot by any ingenuity … be packed into a nutshell. (John Henry Newman, Grammar of Assent, 1870)

nature of the beast The essence of a person or thing; human nature; the qualities and characteristics common to human beings and other animals. This expression combines nature ‘essential qualities or properties’ and beast ‘any animal,’ implying that there is a certain crudeness common to all animals, both human and nonhuman. It is often used in the context of explaining or excusing the behavior of someone who acts or has acted in an inappropriate or boorish manner. Such usage is illustrated in a 1683 letter by Jules Verney:

I’m very sorry [that] John my coachman should be so great a clown to you … but ‘tis the nature of the beast. (Letters and Papers of the Verney Family, 1899)

In recent years, the usage of nature of the beast has been extended to describe the negative qualities often inherent in inanimate objects, bureaucratic systems, and other matters.

part and parcel An integral or essential component; a vital part of a larger entity. In this expression, common since the 14th century, part and parcel are synonymous, their juxtaposition serving to emphasize the importance of a given constituent to the whole.

The places referred to are, for all intents and purposes, part and parcel of the metropolis. (John McCulloch, A Descriptive and Statistical Account of the British Empire, 1846)

sixty-four-dollar question The crux of the matter; the basic or critically important question; the remaining unknown whose answer would provide the ultimate solution of a problem. This expression refers to the prize awarded for correctly answering the last and most difficult in a series of questions asked of a contestant on “Take It or Leave It,” a popular radio quiz show in the 1940s. With the advent of television, the stakes were raised considerably in “The $64,000 Question” (1955-58), giving rise to the updated variation, sixty-four-thousand-dollar question.

Picturesque Expressions: A Thematic Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1980 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

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