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Today's Word "Quintessence"

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quintessence \kwin-TES-ehns\ (noun) - The purest essence of something. Originally it was, earth, air, fire, and water, Aristotle's fifth element (thus "fifth essence;" see Etymology) of which the heavenly bodies were made and which was latent in all earthly things.

"Sally is the quintessence of a soccer mom; she takes her team out for ice cream after every game and grills hamburgers for it on the weekend."

 

Literally, "fifth essence" from Old French quinte essence "fifth essence" and Latin quinta "fifth" and essentia "essence." The root of "essentia" is esse "to be." Latin-speaking philosophers took the term "quinta essentia" and the idea of quintessence directly from the Greek pempte ousia "fifth being." The word for "be" also underlies Sanskrit "bodhisattva," the Buddhist being that sacrifies his opportunity to nirvana for others, from bodhi "enlightenment" + sattva "being." Aside from "is," the same root, *es-, gave us "entity," "absent,"present," and, forsooth, Old English soth underlying "sooth," the archaic but beautiful word for "true" and "truth."


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