a. (quasi-sb.) Metaph. rare. [ad. late L. ens, ent-is: see ENS.] See quot. (rendering of Gr. τὀ ὄν).
188[?]. H. Jackson, in Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), XVIII. 315. Starting from the formula ‘the Ent (or existent) is, the Nonent (or non-existent) is not,’ Parmenides attempted [etc.]. Ibid. The Ent [i.e. the existent unity … which reason discovers beneath the variety and mutability of things].
