quintessence
pronunciation
How to pronounce quintessence in British English:
UK [kwɪnˈtesns]
How to pronounce quintessence in American English:
US [kwɪnˈtesns]
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- Noun:
- the fifth and highest element after air and earth and fire and water; was believed to be the substance composing all heavenly bodies
- the purest and most concentrated essence of something
- the most typical example or representative of a type
Word Origin
- quintessence
- quintessence: [15] Just as modern particle physicists search for the ultimate constituent of matter, the common denominator of all known forces, so medieval alchemists tried to find a fifth primary essence, which together with earth, air, fire, and water formed the substance of all heaven and earth. This fifth essence, higher and more ethereal than the other four, was postulated by Aristotle, who called it aithēr ‘either’.Another Greek term for it was pemptē ousíā ‘fifth essence’, which was translated into medieval Latin as quinta essentia – whence, via French, English quintessence. The metaphorical sense ‘most perfect or characteristic embodiment’ began to emerge in the second half of the 16th century. Other English words based on quintus ‘fifth’, the ordinal form of Latin quinque ‘five’, include quintet [19] and quintuple [16].
- 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.
Example
- 1. If men are indeed trying to regain the quintessence of their sex , then barbershops fit the bill .
- 2. Quintessence , the british publishers , later decided that " books " worked better than " novels " in the title .
- 3. Are the ancient sage 's teachings to be praised as the quintessence of chinese-ness , or rejected ( ...... ) as the ideological foundation of centuries of " feudal " rule ?
- 4. The new edition of alexander solzhenitsyn 's epic novel , " in the first circle " ( harper perennial , $ 18 ) , captures better than any other work of fiction the quintessence of communist rule at its stalinist peak : all-pervasive , paranoid , oppressive , incompetent , lethal .
- 5. Right here , right now , sitting on a butcher-block table , bathed in the sunlight that pours in through spyproof frosted-glass windows , is -- repeat after steve jobs now -- the quintessence of computational coolness , the most fabulous desktop machine that you or anyone anywhere has ever seen .