Steresis

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The lack or deprivation of a property that a thing ought naturally to possess, as in Aristotelian philosophy
2. Privation, meaning the absence of a characteristic that belongs to a subject by its nature
3. A state of being without some expected attribute, such as sight in a creature that should be able to see

Etymology: In Aristotle's philosophy, "steresis" named the condition of lacking something that a thing ought naturally to have. Blindness, for instance, is the privation of sight: a mole lacks sight but is not blind, because it is not the kind of creature that has sight. The Greek noun comes from the verb "stereo," meaning "to deprive" or "to rob," so its core sense is literally a taking away. English borrowed the term as a technical word in philosophical writing, where it keeps this precise meaning. It is rare outside that setting, and it is often found alongside "hexis," Aristotle's word for the possession of a quality, as the two halves of a pair of opposites.