Quintessential

There’s something very pleasing about letting the world quintessential slip across your tongue. I really like this word, and sought out its origints tonight.

The AHD gives a definition that I think does not do this dynamic word justice: “Of, relating to, or having the nature of a quintessence; being the most typical.” I think of something being quintessential not when it has the most typical characteristics of something, but the most critically important characteristics. The OED gives this entry due credit, offering what I feel is a more precise definition of its figurative meaning: “a. The most essential part or feature of some non-material thing; the purest or most perfect form or manifestation of some quality, idea, etc.; b. typical example of a category or class; the most perfect embodiment of a certain type of person or thing.” The OED also traces this definition’s first use in English back to 1590!

I found out tonight that the word quintessential bears a variety of meanings. The very first definition cited by the OED relates to ancient alchemy, and helps tell part of the word’s story:

“1. a. In classical and medieval philosophy: a fifth essence existing in addition to the four elements, supposed to be the substance of which the celestial bodies were composed and to be latent in all things; (Alchemy) this essence, supposed to be able to be extracted by distillation or other procedures.”
The OED tells us that the story begins with the Greek αιθηρ, meaning ether. This is the word Aristotle used to refer to the celestial substance. It becomes πεμπτη ουσια in the Greek, meaning fifth ether. It travels into classical Latin as an equivalent phrase composed of the Latinate counterparts, (as the Greek penqe becomes Latin’s quincta) quinta essentia. The phrase makes its way intact into Middle French quinte + essence and becomes assimilated, quintessence.

I find it interesting that this mysterious substance travelled from language to language in feminine forms, as if it were itself some dark, cosmic feminine energy. A current astrolnomical usage cited by the OED upholds this notion: “b. Astron. A form of dark energy that varies in time and space and has negative pressure, proposed to account for the apparent accelerating expansion of the universe as suggested by observations of some distant supernovae.”

The 1997 blockbuster hit The Fifth Element’s lead Milla Jovovich possessed the unique power necessary to keep Evil from destroying life on earth. She is likewise portrayed a mysterious cosmic force, and must reunite with the other four elements in order to save the world from impending doom.

"Man is a microcosm, or a little world, because he is an extract from all the stars and planets of the whole firmament, from the earth and the elements; and so he is their quintessence.'- Philipus Aureolus Paracelsus

Picture courtesy: http://www.lowculture.com/archives/images/milla_ronald_mcdonald.jpg

Quote courtesy: http://www.thinkexist.com/

Dictionaries: American Heritage College Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary