haecceity

British

/ hiːk-, hɛkˈsiːɪtɪ /

noun

philosophy the property that uniquely identifies an object Compare quiddity

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of haecceity

C17: from Medieval Latin haecceitas, literally: thisness, from haec, feminine of hic this

Explanation

The haecceity of something refers to the quality that makes it what it is: its essence. Haecceity is what makes a dog a dog or a fork a fork. Haecceity is a fancy-sounding word for a simple concept that’s expressed well by its Latin origin, which means this-ness. Philosophers can debate the haecceity of people, meaning what it is that makes a person a person. If you're talking about what makes a chair a chair, or what makes a cat a cat, or what makes a star a star, you're discussing haecceity.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023