the.com/essence
the irreducible whatness left after you've boiled away everything a thing could survive losing
means The essence of something is the core set of qualities that make it what it is, without which it would no longer be that thing.
from From Latin essentia, "being" or "the quality of existing," built on esse, "to be" — the same verb that gives us "is" and "essential." The word was reportedly coined by philosophers translating the Greek ousia ("being," Aristotle's term for the fundamental nature of a thing), needing a Latin equivalent that didn't yet exist. It later picked up the perfumer's sense — the "essence" of a rose being its concentrated, defining oil — from the same idea: the boiled-down core.
- aristotle
- Coined it as to ti en einai, the what-it-was-to-be
- perfume trade
- Essential oils are plant essences squeezed into bottled identity
- existentialism
- Sartre flipped it: existence precedes essence for humans
- chemistry root
- Latin essentia, fabricated from esse, to be
- alchemy
- The quintessence was a fifth element beyond earthly four
vanilla extract — concentrated flavoring from vanilla orchid pods, staple in baking since 1800s
rose otto — essential oil from bulgarian rose valley, requires 4 tons of petals per liter