quintessence
[kwin-tes-uh ns]
- the pure and concentrated essence of a substance.
- the most perfect embodiment of something.
- (in ancient and medieval philosophy) the fifth essence or element, ether, supposed to be the constituent matter of the heavenly bodies, the others being air, fire, earth, and water.
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Origin of quintessence
1400–50; Middle English < Medieval Latin quīnta essentia fifth essence
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
apotheosisheartsubstancegistbottomkerneldistillationsoulpithstuffessentialityultimateepitomemarrowextractspiritlifebloodquiddityvirtualityExamples from the Web for quintessence
Contemporary Examples
That, America, is the quintessence of naturally occurring British-cute.
UK’s No 1 Churchman Doubts Existence of God: The Archbishop of Canterbury Thinks Deep When Running With His DogTim Teeman
September 18, 2014
The actor is the quintessence of smooth, first as Remington Steele, then James Bond.
Pierce Brosnan’s Life After Bond: From Action Hero to Losing His Daughter to CancerTim Teeman
July 2, 2014
In recent years, Stoner entered a category of which it soon became the quintessence.
Yes, Holmes was the quintessence of the Victorian rationalism, “the most perfect and reasoning machine that the world had seen.”
“Innocence is the quintessence of the snapshot,” Lisette Model would write.
Historical Examples
To the man of the world they are the quintessence of his own reflections upon life.
TheaetetusPlato
"This is the quintessence of my journalism; that is the supreme argument," he said to Antonia.
Nostromo: A Tale of the SeaboardJoseph Conrad
The law of compensation itself is the quintessence of horse sense.
Dollars and SenseCol. Wm. C. Hunter
Adams was a quintessence of Boston, devoured by curiosity to think like Benvenuto.
The Education of Henry AdamsHenry Adams
They are the very breath of democracy; the quintessence of freedom.
The Debs DecisionScott Nearing
quintessence
- the most typical representation of a quality, state, etc
- an extract of a substance containing its principle in its most concentrated form
- (in ancient and medieval philosophy) ether, the fifth and highest essence or element after earth, water, air, and fire, which was thought to be the constituent matter of the heavenly bodies and latent in all things
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Word Origin
C15: via French from Medieval Latin quinta essentia the fifth essence, translation of Greek pemptē ousia
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Word Origin and History for quintessence
n.
early 15c., in ancient and medieval philosophy, "pure essence, substance of which the heavenly bodies are composed," literally "fifth essence," from Middle French quinte essence (14c.), from Medieval Latin quinta essentia, from Latin quinta, fem. of quintus "fifth" (see quinque-) + essentia (see Parousia).
A loan-translation of Greek pempte ousia, the "ether" added by Aristotle to the four known elements (water, earth, fire, air) and said to permeate all things. Its extraction was one of the chief goals of alchemy. Sense of "purest essence" (of a situation, character, etc.) is first recorded 1580s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper