essence

Etymology

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”).

noun

1. The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
   CHARITY is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands, ſays an old writer. Gifts and alms are the expreſſions, not the eſſence of this virtue. 1713 September 21, Joseph Addison, The Guardian, collected in The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, volume IV, Birmingham: John Baskerville, published 1761, page 263
   They [the laws] are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labours under ; the scorn of the wicked, the consternation of the good, the refuge of those who violate, and the ruin of those who appeal to them. 1824, Walter Savage Landor, “Oliver Cromwel and Walter Noble”, in Imaginary Conversations, 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, published 1826, page 105
   The essence of Addison’s humour is irony. 1884, William John Courthope, chapter IX, in Addison, London: Macmillan and Co., page 182
2. (philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
3. Constituent substance.
4. A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
   He [Gottfried Wolfgang] had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences, until, like Swedenborg, he had an ideal world of his own around him. 1824, Washington Irving, “The Adventure of the German Student”, in The Works of Washington Irving, new edition, volume VII, New York: G. P. Putnam & Company, published 1853, page 55
5. A significant feature of something.
6. The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.
   essence of Jojoba
7. An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring, or as a restorative.
   There was no one to cook the necessary food that the invalids required to pick up their strength; no fowls to be bought, to make into the essence that is so generally given to fever patients wherever I have been since. 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 150
   vanilla essence
8. Fragrance, a perfume.
   Our humbler province is to tend the Fair, / Not a leſs pleaſing, tho’ leſs glorious care ; / To ſave the powder from too rude a gale, / Nor let th’ impriſon’d eſſences exhale[…] 1712, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock”, in The Beauties of Pope, London: G. Kearsley, published 1783, page 36