subsistent

Subsistent describes existing or continuing to live.

Subsistent is generally used to describe something that continues but doesn’t grow or get better. Something that is subsistent is barely enough, as in We grow all our own food, but we can only grow a subsistent amount.

Subsistent also describes something that is inherent or built-in, such as our need to breathe in order to acquire oxygen. You may hear discussions about aspects of life or industries as being subsistent, meaning they are unavoidable. For example, grief is a subsistent part of life.

Example: Some cultures were subsistent simply on farming and foraging.

The first records of the term subsistent come from around the 1520s. It comes from the Latin subsistere, meaning “to remain.”

In discussions of philosophy, subsistent is used to mean “something that exists separate from space and time.” This idea was largely developed by the Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas, who proposed that the soul was subsistent and that after death it continued to exist separate from the body outside of normal space.

In some fields of abstract philosophy, such as ontology, something that is subsistent is said to be real even if it does not exist. While the theory of subsistent objects is very complex and requires extensive knowledge, a simplified example is that a unicorn, which does not exist, still subsists because humans can think about a unicorn as an object.

What are some other forms related to subsistent?

• nonsubsistent (adjective)
• presubsistent (adjective)
• self-subsistent (adjective)

What are some words that share a root or word element with subsistent? 

• subsist
• subsistence

What are some words that often get used in discussing subsistent?

• life
• living
• wages

Subsistent is most commonly used in discussions about what a person needs to live.

"The Islamic worldview is not be consumed as dualism, for although two elements are involved, yet the one is independent and subsistent while the other is dependent upon it; the one is absolute and the other relative; the one is real and the other manifestaion of that reality. +

— -a.verse (@yvachh) February 6, 2022

The first alternative is that it is rendered subsistent either by this thing or by another that takes its place

— Ibn Sina (@lBNSlNA) February 2, 2022

I am supportive of government intervention maintaining certain industrial capacities for national security, and food security is the most basic. But look at it, is it enough, too much? You want a subsistent minimum.

— Mark Dowst 🌐 (@mdowstfl) February 4, 2022

True or False?

A subsistent amount of food is just enough food to live on.