hypostasis

Etymology

From Ecclesiastical Latin hypostasis, from Ancient Greek ὑπόστασις (hupóstasis, “sediment, foundation; substance, existence, essence”), from ὑπό (hupó, “under”) + στάσις (stásis, “standing”).

noun

1. (medicine, now historical) A sedimentary deposit, especially in urine.
   Thus the kidneys also have their particular excrement which is contained in it and is the hypostasis (deposit). 1999, Paracelsus, “Opus Paramirum”, in Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, transl., Essential Readings, North Atlantic Books, page 92
2. (theology) The essential person, specifically the single person of Christ (as distinguished from his two ‘natures’, human and divine), or of the three ‘persons’ of the Trinity (sharing a single ‘essence’).
   What did the God who hammered the universe together have to do with virtue, redemption, the strange doctrine of hypostasis? 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked
   As Gregory of Nyssa had explained, the three hypostases of Father, Son, and Spirit were not objective facts but simply “terms that we use” to express the way in which the “unnameable and unspeakable” divine nature (ousia) adapts itself to the limitations of our human minds. 2000, Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God, Harper, published 2004, page 69
   As a result of this verbal pact, the Trinity consists of three equal hypostaseis in one ousia: three equal Persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) sharing one Essence or Substance (Trinity or Godhead). 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 218
3. (philosophy) The underlying reality or substance of something.
   1. (linguistics) A relationship between a name and a known quantity, as a cultural personification (i.e. objectification with personality) of an entity or quality.
   2. (psychology) Referring to the hypostatic model of personality; i.e., asserting that humans present themselves in many different aspects or hypostases, depending on the internal and external realities they relate to, including different approaches to the study of personality.
4. (genetics) The effect of one gene preventing another from expressing.
   When penetrance is suppressed altogether, the term ‘epistasis’ (and ‘hypostasis’ of the suppressed gene) is used. 1997, Vogul & Motulsky, Human Genetics: Problems and Approaches, page 141
5. Postmortem lividity; livor mortis; suggillation.