substance

Etymology

From Middle English substance, from Old French substance, from Latin substantia (“substance, essence”), from substāns, present active participle of substō (“exist”, literally “stand under”), from sub + stō (“stand”). Displaced native Old English andweorc.

noun

1. Physical matter; material.
   Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it. 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations
   Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field. 2013-07-20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
   1. A form of matter that has constant chemical composition and characteristic properties.
2. The essential part of anything; the most vital part.
   1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.
   It is insolent in words, in manner; but in substance it is not only insulting, but alarming. 1796, Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace
3. Substantiality; solidity; firmness.
   Some textile fabrics have little substance.
4. Material possessions; estate; property; resources.
   a man of substance
5. Drugs (illegal narcotics)
   substance abuse
6. (theology) Hypostasis.

verb

1. (rare, transitive) To give substance to; to make real or substantial.
   If life were nothing but what gets phrased and substanced, the world might as well be rolled up and laid away again in darkness. 1873, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, The Other Girls, page 335
   The calm ruminating / Reverie, substancing / Intellect into emotion, / Is shelter enough for love / Unhumiliated by faith. 1982, Dhupaty V. K. Raghavacharyulu, The Song of the Red Rose and Other Poems, page 78