essence

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”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛsəns/

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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.

   • 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.

   • 1884, William John Courthope, chapter IX, in Addison, London: Macmillan and Co., page 182:

     The essence of Addison’s humour is irony.

2. (philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
3. Constituent substance.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     , 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 […]

4. A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     , 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.

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.

   essence of Jojoba

7. An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring.

   vanilla essence

8. 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 […]

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

• in essence
• of the essence; time is of the essence

• essential
• essentially
• essentialism
• quintessential

• essence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• essence in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

• senesce

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.

• IPA^(key): /e.sɑ̃s/, /ɛ.sɑ̃s/

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essence f (plural essences)

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

• “essence” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

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