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quintessence - 5 dictionary results

quin⋅tes⋅sence

  [kwin-tes-uhns]
Use quintessence in a Sentence
–noun
1. the pure and concentrated essence of a substance.
2. the most perfect embodiment of something.
3. (in ancient and medieval philosophy) the fifth essence or element, ether, supposed to be the constituent matter of the heavenly bodies, the others being air, fire, earth, and water.
Origin:
1400–50; ME < ML quīnta essentia fifth essence

Related forms:
quin⋅tes⋅sen⋅tial  [kwin-tuh-sen-shuhl] , adjective
quin⋅tes⋅sen⋅tial⋅ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To quintessence
quin·tes·sence   (kwĭn-těs'əns)   
n.  
  1. The pure, highly concentrated essence of a thing.
  2. The purest or most typical instance: the quintessence of evil.
  3. In ancient and medieval philosophy, the fifth and highest essence after the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, thought to be the substance of the heavenly bodies and latent in all things.

[Middle English, from Old French quinte essence, fifth essence, from Medieval Latin quīnta essentia (translation of Greek pemptē ousiā) : Latin quīnta, feminine of quīntus, fifth; see penkwe in Indo-European roots + Latin essentia, essence; see essence.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Quintessence

Quin*tes"sence\, n. [F., fr. L. quinta essentia fifth essence. See Quint, and Essence.]

1. The fifth or last and highest essence or power in a natural body. See Ferment oils, under Ferment. [Obs.]

Note: The ancient Greeks recognized four elements, fire, air, water, and earth. The Pythagoreans added a fifth and called it nether, the fifth essence, which they said flew upward at creation and out of it the stars were made. The alchemists sometimes considered alcohol, or the ferment oils, as the fifth essence.

2. Hence: An extract from anything, containing its rarest virtue, or most subtle and essential constituent in a small quantity; pure or concentrated essence.

Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung from the deep. --Milton.

Quintessence

Quin*tes"sence\, v. t. To distil or extract as a quintessence; to reduce to a quintessence. [R.] --Stirling. "Truth quintessenced and raised to the highest power." --J. A. Symonds.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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quintessence 
c.1430, in ancient and medieval philosophy, "pure essence, substance of which the heavenly bodies are composed," lit. "fifth essence," from M.Fr. quinte essence (14c.), from M.L. quinta essentia, from L. quinta, fem. of quintus "fifth" + essentia (see essence). Loan-translation of Gk. 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 1570; quintessential (n.) is from 1899, in this sense.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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