Meaning and Origin
What does the name Essence mean? Keep reading to find the user submitted meanings, dictionary definitions, and more.
Origin and Meaning of Essence
User Submitted Origins
English
60%
Latin
20%
Hebrew
13%
Gujarati
7%
User Submitted Meanings
- A user from Virginia, U.S. says the name Essence is of Gujarati origin and means "Pretty or gift of god".
- According to a user from Georgia, U.S., the name Essence means "Pretty and gift of god".
- According to a user from Canada, the name Essence is of Latin origin and means "Life".
International Interest
Also see international interest
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
noun Es"sence
Senses
- The constituent elementary notions which constitute a complex notion, and must be enumerated to define it; sometimes called the nominal essence.
- The constituent quality or qualities which belong to any object, or class of objects, or on which they depend for being what they are (distinguished as real essence); the real being, divested of all logical accidents; that quality which constitutes or marks the true nature of anything; distinctive character; hence, virtue or quality of a thing, separated from its grosser parts."The laws are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labors under." [Landor.]"Gifts and alms are the expressions, not the essence of this virtue [charity]." [Addison.]"The essence of Addison's humor is irony." [Courthope.]
- Constituent substance."And uncompounded is their essence pure." [Milton.]
- A being; esp., a purely spiritual being."As far as gods and heavenly essences Can perish." [Milton.]"He had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences, until . . . he had and ideal world of his own around him." [W. Irving.]
- The predominant qualities or virtues of a plant or drug, extracted and refined from grosser matter; or, more strictly, the solution in spirits of wine of a volatile or essential oil; as, the essence of mint, and the like."The . . . word essence . . . scarcely underwent a more complete transformation when from being the abstract of the verb “to be,” it came to denote something sufficiently concrete to be inclosed in a glass bottle." [J. S. Mill.]
- Perfume; odor; scent; or the volatile matter constituting perfume."Nor let the essences exhale." [Pope.]
Etymology: F. essence, L. essentia, formed as if fr. a p. pr. of esse to be. See Is, and cf. Entity
verb Es"sence
To perfume; to scent.
Other Dictionary Sources
- A toiletry that emits and diffuses a fragrant odor
- The choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience
- The central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work
- Any substance possessing to a high degree the predominant properties of a plant or drug or other natural product from which it is extracted
Wiktionary
From French essence, from Latin essentia (“the being or essence of a thing”), from an artificial formation of esse (“to be”), to translate Ancient Greek οὐσία (ousía, “being”), from ὤν (ṓn), present participle of εἰμί (eimí, “I am, exist”).
- The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
- (philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
- Constituent substance.
- A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
- A significant feature of something.
- The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.
- essence of Jojoba
- An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring.
- vanilla essence
- Fragrance, a perfume.
essence was also found in the following language(s): French