Hypertext Webster Gateway: "quintessence"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Quintessence \Quin*tes"sence\, v. t.
To distil or extract as a quintessence; to reduce to a
quintessence. [R.] --Stirling. ``Truth quintessenced and
raised to the highest power.'' --J. A. Symonds.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Quintessence \Quin*tes"sence\, n. [F., fr. L. quinta essentia
fifth essence. See {Quint}, and {Essence}.]
1. The fifth or last and highest essence or power in a
natural body. See {Ferment oils}, under {Ferment}. [Obs.]
Note: The ancient Greeks recognized four elements, fire, air,
water, and earth. The Pythagoreans added a fifth and
called it nether, the fifth essence, which they said
flew upward at creation and out of it the stars were
made. The alchemists sometimes considered alcohol, or
the ferment oils, as the fifth essence.
2. Hence: An extract from anything, containing its rarest
virtue, or most subtle and essential constituent in a
small quantity; pure or concentrated essence.
Let there be light, said God; and forthwith light
Ethereal, first of things, quintessence pure, Sprung
from the deep. --Milton.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
quintessence
n 1: (archaic) the fifth and highest element after air and earth
and fire and water; was believed to be the substance
composing all heavenly bodies [syn: {ether}]
2: the purest and most concentrated essence of something
3: the most typical example or representative of a type
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