Also 4 in med.Lat. form essencia, 6 assence. [a. Fr. essence, ad. L. essentia, f. *essent-em, fictitious pr. pple. of esse to be, in imitation of Gr. οὐσία being, f. ὀντ-, stem of pr. pple. of εἶναι to be. Cf. Pr. essentia, Sp. esencia, It. essenza.]
† 1. Being, existence, viewed as a fact or as a property possessed by something. Obs.
1576. Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 284. Nature hath not given unto men their essence and being, to be … in idlenesse … but … still to bee doinge.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 166. How canst thou abide his presence, that beleevedst not his essence?
1605. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. i. Argt. (1605–7), I. 1. World not eternall … But of meere Nothing God it Essence gaue.
1622. Fletcher, Sp. Curate, IV. iv. I would resign my Essence, that he were As happy as my Love cou’d fashion him.
a. 1688. Cudworth, Immut. Mor. (1731), 2. None of these things have in Nature any Essence of their own.
¶ b. The kind of being distinctive of animals; animal life. Obs. rare–1.
1633. Earl Manch., Al Mondo (1636), 35. Of creatures, the lowest ranke have no life, the next no essence, the third no reason; none but man hath grace.
2. concr. Something that is; an existence, entity. Now restricted to spiritual or immaterial entities.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, iv. 49. Man is an essence subiect to time, place and accidents.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., IV. i. G j b. There is no essence mortal, That I can enuie, but a plumpe cheekt foole.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. i. 16. Her honor is an Essence that’s not seene.
1642. Sir T. Browne, Relig. Med., I. § 31. 58. Those noble essences in heaven beare a friendly regard unto their fellow-natures on earth.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 138. All this mighty Host In horrible destruction laid thus low, As far as Gods and Heav’nly Essences Can Perish.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IX. 2303. Through radiant ranks of essences unknown.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, i. Wks. VIII. 79. Commonwealths are not physical but moral essences.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., I. 72. Fanciful speculations on spiritual essences.
1833. Tennyson, Poems, 77. All nature widens upward: evermore The simpler essence lower lies.
1836. Emerson, Nature, Spirit, Wks. (Bohn), II. 166. Of that ineffable essence which we call Spirit, he that thinks most will say least.
1847. J. Wilson, Chr. North (1857), I. 257. The immortal essence enshrined within.
† b. ‘Species of existent being’ (J.); an element. Chiefly in phrase, fifth essence, transl. of L. quinta essentia: see QUINTESSENCE.
The ‘fifth essence’ was a supposed substance distinct from the recognized four elements. What this fifth essence was, and where existing, was much disputed. Originally, it seems to have been the material of the starry heaven, as conceived by those who hesitated to identify it with ‘fire.’ Among the alchemists, it was usually supposed to be latent in all bodies, and to be capable of being extracted from them by distillation or some more recondite process; many thought that alcohol was one of its forms. Others regarded the discovery of the ‘fifth essence’ as one of the unrealized aims of science, and attributed to the hypothetical substance all sorts of miracle-working properties. Hence fifth essence or quintessence was used loosely in the various senses ‘highly refined extract or essence’ and ‘universal remedy.’
1582. Hester, trans. Phioravanti’s Secretes, III. liv. The Quintaessence … is an essence aboue the fower elements.
1622. Bacon, Holy War, Misc. Wks. (1629), 94 (J.). Here be Foure of you … as differing as the Foure Elements.… As for Eupolis,… hee may bee the Fifth Essence.
1662. R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., § 26. 20. An Universal Medicine, or fifth Essence.
1817. Byron, Manfred, I. i. Ye, who do compass earth about, and dwell In subtler essence.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), I. 41. There is some essence of body, different from those of the four elements.
c. ‘Constituent substance’ (J.).
1398. Trevisa, Barth De P. R., II. ii. (1495), 28. The essencia of angels is symple and vnmateryal, pure, dystyngt and discrete.
1599. Davies, Nosce Teipsum, 10. The Elements conspire, And to her [soul’s] Essence each doth give a part.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 425. Spirits … Can either Sex assume, or both; so soft And uncompounded is their Essence pure.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, III. i. Those Beings Through whose pure essence as through empty air The unaided eye would pass.
† 3. Specific being, manner of existing, ‘what a thing is’; nature, character. Obs.
c. 1532. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 920. Thre thynges dothe cause the essence of whythnesse.
1588. Greene, Pandosto (1843), 20. The god Apollo, who by his devine essence knew al secrets.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., II. ii. 120. Man … Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d, (His glassie Essence) … Plaies such phantastique tricks [etc.].
1620. Melton, Astrolog., 37. By the fourth House, you will iudge of the essence of the Child that is borne, how long it shall liue, and how well.
1626. Bacon, Sylva (1631), § 287. Eccho … is a great Argument of the Spirituall Essence of Sounds.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., III. 184. The numerous Rabble that seem to have the Signatures of Man in their faces … have nothing of the nobler part that should denominate their Essences.
1656. Ridgley, Pract. Physick, 74. The part that principally offends must be cured. If it be by essence, opening a Vein is good. Ibid., 185. It [head-ach] is either by essence or by sympathy with the stomach [etc.].
4. ‘Substance’ in the metaphysical sense; the reality underlying phenomena; absolute being.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. x. 38. The substraction of that essence, which substantially supporteth them.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess., II. 188. But belief in a universal essence gave no solidity to the order of the world.
b. Theol. A synonym of ‘substance,’ as denoting that in respect of which the three persons in the Trinity are one.
The L. essentia literally renders Gr. οὐσία, the technical word in this sense. The alternative rendering, substantia, substance, corresponds literally to Gr. ὐπόστασις, which however in theological use meant not ‘substance’ but ‘person.’
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., I. (1495), 6. Thise thre persones be not thre goddes, but one very god, one essence or one beyng.
1481. Caxton, Myrr., III. xii. 160. [Plato and Aristotle] fonde by their wysedom and connyng thre persones in one essence.
1538. Bale, Thre Lawes, 37. All-one with the sonne, and holy ghost in essence.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, IV. 6146. Augustyne sayis, he had leuer tak on hand To be in Hell, he seyng the assence Off God, nor be in Heuin, but his presence.
5. That by which anything subsists; foundation of being.
c. 1585. Answ. to Cartwright, 35. Christ being the essence and life of the Church.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., III. i. 182. Shee [Siluia] is my essence, and I leaue to be; If I be not by her faire influence Foster’d.
1793. Holcroft, trans. Lavater’s Physiog., iii. 25. There is a tranquil strength the essence of which is immobility.
1841. Myers, Cath. Th., III. § 6. 15. Of Him who was The Truth—its author and its essence.
1884. H. Jennings, Phallicism, iv. 41. The Hindoos holding Fire to be the essence of all active power in nature.
† 6. Essentiality, importance. Cf. OF. de grant essence (Godef.).
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xv. § 1. Pp 2. A matter of great vse and essence in studying.
1652. Shirley, Brothers, IV. 46. Ther’s somthing Of Essence to my life, exacts my care.
7. That which constitutes the being of a thing; that ‘by which it is what it is.’ In two different applications (distinguished by Locke as nominal essence and real essence, respectively):
a. of a conceptual entity: The totality of the properties, constituent elements, etc., without which it would cease to be the same thing; the indispensable and necessary attributes of a thing as opposed to those that it may have or not. Also, in narrower sense, those among the indispensable attributes that involve all the rest by logical consequence, and are sufficient for a valid definition; the ‘connotation of the class-name.’
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., III. (1604), 124 (J.). Those thinges, which supernaturally appertaine to the very essence of Christianitie.
1610. Bp. Hall, Apol. Brownists, § 7. 20. [It] will proue but an appendance of an externall forme, no part of the essence of a true Church.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxxi. § 24. 182. The Essence of a Triangle, lies in a very little compass…; three Lines meeting at three Angles, make up that Essence.
1714. J. Fortescue-Aland, Pref. to Fortescue’s Abs. & Lim. Mon., 6. We may exactly know the several Ideas that go to make each Law-term, and so their real Nature and Essence may be known.
1841. Myers, Cath. Th., III. § 39. 101. To confound the transitory and special form with the characteristic and permanent essence.
1870. Bowen, Logic, iv. 74. Logic … considers the Essence of a Concept to be the aggregate of its Marks.
b. of a real entity: Objective character, intrinsic nature as a ‘thing-in-itself’; ‘that internal constitution, on which all the sensible properties depend.’
1667. H. More, Div. Dial., I. xxiv. 93. I might believe its [a spirit’s] Existence, without meddling at all with its Essence.
1725. Watts, Logick, I. vi. § 2. 131. In defining the Name there is no Necessity that we should be acquainted with the intimate Essence, or Nature of the Thing.
1739. Hume, Hum. Nat., I. Introd. The essence of the mind being equally unknown to us with that of external bodies.
1777. Priestley, Matt. & Spir. (1782), I. xii. 139. In fact, we have no proper idea of any essence whatever.
1808. J. Webster, Nat. Phil., 16. We clearly view the effects of attraction … but human ingenuity has not been able to fathom its principle or essence.
1856. Ferrier, Inst. Metaph., IX. xi. 251. With the old philosophers the essence of things was precisely that part of them of which a clear conception could be formed.
8. loosely. The most important indispensable quality or constituent element of anything; the specific difference.
1656. trans. Hobbes’ Elem. Philos. (1839), 117. The accident which denominates its subject, is commonly called the essence thereof.
1754. Chatham, Lett. Nephew, iv. 27. The essence of religion is, a heart void of offence towards God and man.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Friendship, Wks. (Bohn), I. 92. The essence of friendship is entireness.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., V. xxiv. 452. It is the essence of the modern Jury that they should … give their verdict according to the evidence.
9. An extract obtained by distillation or otherwise from a plant, or from a medicinal, odoriferous or alimentary substance, and containing its characteristic properties in a concentrated form. In pharmacy chiefly applied to alcoholic solutions containing the volatile elements or ‘essential oil’ to which the perfume, flavor, or therapeutic virtues of the substance are due. Essence of Venus = Ens Veneris: see ENS 2 b.
[This sense is common to all the Romanic langs., its general currency being prob. due to its use by Paracelsus. It is in part a development of 8, perh. suggested by the older fifth essence (see 2 b), which had assumed a nearly similar meaning.]
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., xxv. 195. Very small Viols, such as Chymical Essences … are wont to be kept in.
1662. R. Mathew, Unl. Alch., § 109. 189. The true preparation of the Essence of Venus.
1744. Thomson, Spring, 509. Bees … with inserted tube Suck its pure essence.
1838. T. Thomson, Chem. Org. Bodies, 459. It comes to us from the South of Europe under the name of essence of lemons.
1842. Barham, Ingol. Leg., Babes in the Wood, iv. Mind Johnny’s chilblains are rubb’d Well with Whitehead’s best essence of mustard.
b. fig.
1798. Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, Eng. Historians, 252. The essence of history … is always apt to evaporate in the moment of enjoyment.
1816. Byron, Ch. Har., III. lxxviii. His love was passion’s essence.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, xx. 137–8. It was a perfect love-letter, that is to say, it was the essence of nonsense.
1841. Myers, Cath. Th., III. § 14. 38. Truth cannot be given us in essence.
10. spec. A fragrant essence; a perfume, scent. Somewhat arch.
1627–77. Feltham, Resolves, II. lxiii. 293. It sinks as essence does in cotton till all becomes a Fragrancy.
1712–4. Pope, Rape Lock, II. 94. To save the powder from too rude a gale, Nor let th’ imprison’d essences exhale.
1841. G. P. R. James, Brigand, xv. A toilet table covered with all the most costly essences and perfumes which could be procured from the four quarters of the globe.
1855. Tennyson, Maud, I. xiii. His essences turn’d the live air sick.
fig. 1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ., Riddle Explained. Delicious essence! how refreshing art thou [flattery] to nature!
11. attrib. and Comb. (chiefly sense 10).
1659. Boyle, Exper. Spring of Air, xxv. Wks. 1772, I. 59. We prosecuted the experiment so long, without seeing any effect wrought upon the essence-bottles, that [etc.]. Ibid. Essence-glass.
1777. Sheridan, Trip Scarb., III. i. Thou essence-bottle, thou musk-cat!
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Aug., 3/2. The essence-steeped fur of a glove.
