Essene
(Es*sene") n.; pl. Essenes [Gr. lit., physicians, because they practiced medicine, fr. Chald
asaya to heal, cf. Heb. asa.] One of a sect among the Jews in the time of our Savior, remarkable for
their strictness and abstinence.
Essenism
(Es"se*nism) n. The doctrine or the practices of the Essenes. De Quincey.
Essential
(Es*sen"tial) a. [Cf. F. essentiel. See Essence.]
1. Belonging to the essence, or that which makes an object, or class of objects, what it is.
Majestic as the voice sometimes became, there was forever in it an essential character of plaintiveness.
Hawthorne. 2. Hence, really existing; existent.
Is it true, that thou art but a name,
And no essential thing?
Webster 3. Important in the highest degree; indispensable to the attainment of an object; indispensably necessary.
Judgment's more essential to a general
Than courage.
Denham.
How to live? — that is the essential question for us.
H. Spencer. 4. Containing the essence or characteristic portion of a substance, as of a plant; highly rectified; pure; hence,
unmixed; as, an essential oil. "Mine own essential horror." Ford.
5. (Mus.) Necessary; indispensable; — said of those tones which constitute a chord, in distinction from
ornamental or passing tones.
6. (Med.) Idiopathic; independent of other diseases.
Essential character (Biol.), the prominent characteristics which serve to distinguish one genus, species,
etc., from another. — Essential disease, Essential fever (Med.), one that is not dependent on another.
— Essential oils (Chem.), a class of volatile oils, extracted from plants, fruits, or flowers, having each
its characteristic odor, and hot burning taste. They are used in essences, perfumery, etc., and include
many varieties of compounds; as lemon oil is a terpene, oil of bitter almonds an aldehyde, oil of wintergreen
an ethereal salt, etc.; — called also volatile oils in distinction from the fixed or nonvolatile.
Essential
(Es*sen"tial) n.
1. Existence; being. [Obs.] Milton.
2. That which is essential; first or constituent principle; as, the essentials of religion.
Essentiality
(Es*sen`ti*al"i*ty) n. The quality of being essential; the essential part. Jer. Taylor.
Essentially
(Es*sen"tial*ly) adv. In an essential manner or degree; in an indispensable degree; really; as,
essentially different.
Essentialness
(Es*sen"tial*ness), n. Essentiality. Ld. Digby.
Essentiate
(Es*sen"ti*ate) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Essentiated; p. pr. & vb. n. Essentiating.] To form or
constitute the essence or being of. [Obs.] Boyle.
Essentiate
(Es*sen"ti*ate), v. i. To become assimilated; to be changed into the essence. [Obs.] B.
Jonson.
