quintessence

From Middle English, borrowed from Middle French, from Medieval Latin quinta essentia (“fifth essence, aether”). "Essence" in this context is a synonym for "element". In pre-atomic/Aristotelian theory, there are four known elements or essences — Earth, Air, Fire and Water — and a putative fifth element (aether), which is considered to be of exceptional superior quality to the other four basic elements.

• enPR: kwĭn-tĕsʹ-əns, kwĭn-tĕsʹ-ĭns, IPA^(key): /kwɪnˈtɛs.əns/, /kwɪnˈtɛs.ɪns/

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quintessence (countable and uncountable, plural quintessences)

1. A thing that is the most perfect example of its type; the most perfect embodiment of something; epitome, prototype.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:model

   • 1837, Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, (please specify the book or page number):

     As families and kindreds sometimes do; producing, after long ages of unnoted notability, some living quintescence of all the qualities they had, to flame forth as a man world-noted […]

2. A pure substance.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:non-mixture

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

3. The essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:gist

   • 1599, T[homas] M[offett], The Silkewormes, and Their Flies: […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Nicholas Ling, […], →OCLC, pages 67–68:

     For vvhat is ſilke but eu'n a Quinteſſence, / Made vvithout hands beyond al humane ſenſe? / A quinteſſence? nay vvel it may be call'd, / A deathleſſe tincture, ſent vs from the skies, / VVhoſe colour ſtands, vvhose gloſſe is ne're appalld, […]

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 243–245:

     Let ther be Light, ſaid God, and forthwith Light, / Ethereal, firſt of things, quinteſſence pure, / Sprung from the Deep, […]

4. (alchemy) The fifth alchemical element, or essence, after earth, air, fire, and water that fills the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere.

   Synonym: aether

5. (physics) A hypothetical form of dark energy postulated to explain observations of an accelerating universe.

• quintessential
• quintessentially

quintessence (third-person singular simple present quintessences, present participle quintessencing, simple past and past participle quintessenced)

1. (transitive) To reduce to its purest and most concentrated essence.

• “quintessence”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “quintessence”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• “quintessence”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.

Univerbation of quinte essence, itself borrowed from Medieval Latin quinta essentia.

• IPA^(key): /kɛ̃.tɛ.sɑ̃s/ ~ /kɛ̃.te.sɑ̃s/

• Audio:

  (file)

quintessence f (plural quintessences)

1. quintessence (all senses)

• “quintessence”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.