Quintessence

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kwɪnˈtɛs.əns/

Definitions

1. The most perfect or concentrated form of something that represents its essential nature or highest quality
2. The purest distillation or supreme embodiment of a thing's most fundamental and ideal characteristics
3. That which contains the absolute essence or most refined expression of something in its most complete state

Etymology: The idea behind "quintessence" started as a fifth element. Aristotle and the thinkers who followed him held that everything in the sensible world was made from four elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water, but that the heavens were made of a fifth substance, which medieval Latin writers called "quinta essentia," literally "fifth essence." This substance was thought to be purer and more perfect than the four basic elements, and it was also called aether. The word came into English from Middle French, which had taken it from that Medieval Latin phrase. "Quint-" is the Latin for "fifth," and "essence" in this context meant something close to "element," a basic substance out of which things were made. Early English uses kept this physical, cosmological sense. Over time the fifth element lost its place in physics but kept its prestige. The term shifted from a material substance to the most perfect or concentrated form of a thing, the distilled core that embodies what it is at its best.

Synonyms: essence, substance, core, nature, soul

Antonyms: superficiality, insignificance, periphery