essence

English

/ˈɛsəns/

noun
Definitions
  • The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
  • (philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
  • Constituent substance.
  • A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
  • A significant feature of something.
  • The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.
  • An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring.
  • Fragrance, a perfume.

Etymology

Derived from French essence (petrol, gasoline) derived from Latin essentia (essence, being, the being essence of a thing) derived from Ancient Greek οὐσία (existence, essence, being) root from Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- (be, exist).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*h₁es-

Gloss

be, exist

Concept
Semantic Field

Miscellaneous function words

Ontological Category

Action/Process

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms