Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Quintessence
1.
The fifth or last and highest essence or power in a natural body. See
Ferment oils
, under Ferment
. [Obs.]
☞ 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,
Sprung from the deep.
Ethereal, first of things,
quintessence
pure,Sprung from the deep.
Milton.
Quin-tes′sence
,Verb.
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 1828 Edition
Quintessence
QUINTES'SENCE
,Noun.
1.
In alchimy, the fifth or last and highest essence of power in a natural body. Hence,2.
An extract from any thing, containing its virtues or most essential part in a small quantity.Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light etherial, first of things, quintessence pure, sprung from the deep.
3.
In chimistry, a preparation consisting of the essential oil of a vegetable substance, mixed and incorporated with spirit of wine.4.
The pure essential part of a thing.[I have followed Bailey and Ash and our general usage in the accentuation of this word. Jameson has done the same. The accent on the first syllable is very unnatural.]
Definition 2024
quintessence
quintessence
English
Noun
quintessence (countable and uncountable, plural quintessences)
- A thing that is the most perfect example of its type; the most perfect embodiment of something; epitome, prototype.
- 1837 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History
- 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[.]
- 1837 Thomas Carlyle, The French Revolution: A History
- A pure substance.
- The essence of a thing in its purest and most concentrated form.
- (alchemy) The fifth alchemical element, or essence, after earth, air, fire, and water
- (physics) A hypothetical form of dark energy postulated to explain observations of an accelerating universe.
Synonyms
- See also Wikisaurus:model
Derived terms
Translations
most perfect example of its type
|
|
pure substance
|
|
essence in its most pure and concentrated form
|
|
Verb
quintessence (third-person singular simple present quintessences, present participle quintessencing, simple past and past participle quintessenced)
- (transitive) To reduce to its purest and most concentrated essence.
References
- quintessence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- “quintessence” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).
- “quintessence” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.