You can think of it as what is left when you boil something down: strip away everything that could change without the thing stopping being itself, and the small remainder is the essence. It works for both a substance and an idea — squeeze a mountain of flower and a few drops of concentrated liquid come out; squeeze a long argument and a single sentence comes out.
From the word’s history
Latin essentia was coined from esse ("to be") to translate Greek ousia — literally "the being-ness of a thing", the part of it that simply is what it is.
拉丁文 essentia 是從 esse（「存在、是」）造出來的抽象名詞，用來翻譯希臘文 ousía。字面意思就是「一樣東西之所以是它的那個『是』」。這個造字動機和現代的核心畫面幾乎重疊：essence 指的一直都是「拿掉就不成立」的那一層，後來的香精、要旨都是同一個濃縮動作落在不同材料上。
Wiktionary, "essence" (from Middle French essence, from Latin essentia, from esse, calquing Ancient Greek οὐσία)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料9 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Essencename
- 1
A female given name of African-American usage.
essencenoun/ˈɛsəns/
- 1
The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
- CHARITY is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands, ſays an old writer. Gifts and alms are the expreſſions, not the eſſence of this virtue.
- They [the laws] are at present, both in form and essence, the greatest curse that society labours under ; the scorn of the wicked, the consternation of the good, the refuge of those who violate, and the ruin of those who appeal to them.
- 2
human-sciencesphilosophysciencesThe true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
- 3
Constituent substance.
- For Spirits when they pleaſe / Can either Sex aſſume, or both ; ſo ſoft / And uncompounded is their Eſſence pure, / Not ti’d or manacl’d with joynt or limb, / Nor founded on the brittle ſtrength of bones, / Like cumbrous fleſh[…]
- 4
A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
- And put to proof his high Supremacy, / Whether upheld by ſtrength, or Chance, or Fate, / Too well I ſee and rue the dire event, / That with ſad overthrow and foul defeat / Hath loſt us Heav’n, and all this mighty Hoſt / In horrible deſtruction laid thus low, / As far as Gods and Heav’nly Eſſences / Can Periſh.
- He [Gottfried Wolfgang] had been indulging in fanciful speculations on spiritual essences, until, like Swedenborg, he had an ideal world of his own around him.
- 5
A significant feature of something.
- 6
The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through an extraction or distillation process.
- essence of Jojoba
- 7
An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring, or as a restorative.
- vanilla essence
- She bathed the face of the sleeper with some essence, raised her in her arms, and called upon her name.
- 8
Fragrance, a perfume.
- Our humbler province is to tend the Fair, / Not a leſs pleaſing, tho’ leſs glorious care ; / To ſave the powder from too rude a gale, / Nor let th’ impriſon’d eſſences exhale[…]
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。