| 释义 |
essential, a. and n.|ɪˈsɛnʃəl|
Forms: 4–6 essenciall(e, -yal(l, (4 escencyalle, 6 assencial), 6–7 essentiall, 6– essential. In B 2 also aphet. sensual.
[ad. late L. essentiālis, f. essentia essence: cf. Pr. essencial, Sp. esencial, It. essenziale.]
A. adj.
1. In various senses related to essence n. 1–4.
a. That is such by essence, or in the absolute or highest sense.
c1340Hampole Prose Tr. (1866) 16 Þe souerayne and þe escencyalle joy es in þe lufe of Godd by hymselfe and for hym-selfe, and þe secundarye es in, etc. 1817Coleridge Biog. Lit. I. i. 22 The poem..to which we return..claims the name of essential poetry. 1877Sparrow Serm. xv. 203 As the love of God is essential happiness, sin, which is enmity to him, is essential misery, eternal misery.
†b. Having existence, real, actual. Also, identical with what now exists. Obs.
1535Act 27 Hen. VIII, c. 27 Monasteries..which the kinges maiestie..shall declare and limittee to continue and be in their assencial estate. Ibid. c. 28 §3 As if the same monasteryes..hadde contynued in ther essencyall bodyes and states that thei now be or were in. 1552Bk. Com. Prayer, Communion, Anye reall and essenciall presence. a1635Corbet Poems 62 Was his essential table full and free As boasts and invitations used to be?
†c. Relating to position in the scale of being. Obs. rare.
1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. i. vi. 122 The production of Creatures of various degrees of essential perfection.
†d. Dependent on the intrinsic character or condition of anything, not on extraneous circumstances. Of diseases: Idiopathic (cf. essence 3 b). essential merit (Theol.) = ‘merit of condignity’, the merit belonging to good works in proportion to their intrinsic excellence; so essential reward.
1502Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) iv. iv. 172 He shall not be rewarded of meryte essencyall for those werkes done in deedly synne. 1560tr. Fisher On Prayer D viij, Euerie merit.. whiche is recompensed by essentiall rewarde (as they call it) in heauen. a1654J. Webster (Webster), Is it true, then, that thou art but a name, And no essential thing? 1875Lyell Princ. Geol. I. i. iii. 28 Mountains are formed, he [Avicenna] says, some by essential, others by accidental causes. 1884Syd. Soc. Lex., Essential disease, a disease complete in itself, and not depending on, or symptomatic of another.
e. essential debility, essential dignity (Astrol.): see the ns. †
f. With descriptive ns.: Thorough, entire.
1604Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 31 Oh he's a most essentiall gentleman, coz. 1721Cibber Woman's Wit iii, Dear Ladies, your most essential humble Servant.
2. Of or pertaining to essence, specific being, or intrinsic nature. essential difference (Logic): = ‘specific difference’, differentia. essential character: in scientific classification, the marks which distinguish a species, genus, etc. from the others included with it in the next superior division. essential proposition (Logic): one which predicates of a subject something that is implied in its definition. † essential name (Theol.): see quot. 1398. essential form (Metaph.): see form.
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. i. (1495) 7 The names signyfienge or betokenynge the dyuyne essence or beynge ben callid names essencialles. 1590Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. iv. ii, The essential forme of Marble stone, Temper'd by science metaphysical. 1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. ii. (1611) 4 In which essentiall vnitie of God. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. iv. §8 Deceit or untruth..doth destroy the essential form of knowledge, which is nothing but a representation of truth. 1628T. Spencer Logick 4 [The copula] signifies an essentiall attribution (that is) that, the latter part of the definition doth giue being vnto the former. 1656Bramhall Replic. i. 3 Rationability..is a substantiall part of a man, because it is a part of his definition or his essentiall difference. 1687Death's Vis. vii. note (1713) 6 Essential Forms I say, rather than Substantial. 1736Butler Anal. i. iii. 63 Its [Virtue's] having in the essential nature of the thing a tendency to produce them [Superiority and Advantages]. 1776Withering Brit. Plants (1796) I. 212 The nectary gives the essential character. 1846Mill Logic i. vi. §4 An essential proposition then, is one which is purely verbal. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 178 The desire to ascertain..the essential nature of virtue.
3. Constituting, or forming part of, the essence of anything; belonging to a thing by virtue of its essence; necessarily implied in its definition; indispensably entering into its composition.
1546Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. iv. i. 82 His only begotten son equal to him in essential power. 1596Spenser Hymn Heav. Beauty xvi, Those essentiall parts of his, His truth, his love, his wisedome, and his blis. 1661Bramhall Just Vind. vii. 225 By the Law of Nature as an essential right of Soveraignty. 1690Locke Hum. Und. iii. vi. (1695) 246 The thought of any thing essential to any of them, instantly vanishes. 1705Stanhope Paraphr. I. 54 The Glory of God is so exquisite in itself and so Essential to Him, that, etc. 1862Sir B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. II. i. 9 The desire of reputation..is an essential part of human nature. 1878Tait & Stewart Unseen Univ. i. 23 In the essential immortality of the soul.
b. Affecting the essence of anything; ‘material’, important.
1770Junius Lett. xli. 209 You have done essential service to the cause. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. III. 44 The piercing eye of the founder of the republic must have discerned two essential imperfections. 1794Burke Rep. Lords' Jrnls. Wks. 1842 II. 617 To have adopted the civil law with no very essential variation. 1871Blackie Four Phases i. 142 It is not in the nature of things that a better man should receive essential harm from a worse.
4. Absolutely necessary, indispensably requisite.
essential vows: the three vows (of chastity, poverty, and obedience) indispensable to the monastic life.
1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 151 b, The lyfe of religyous persones, that professeth the thre essencyall vowes. 1612Bp. Hall Pref. to Brinsley's Lud. Lit., Those sciences which are so Essentiall to the Spirituall house of God. 1662Gerbier Princ. 4 The first and essential point of Building, (to wit, Solidity with Ornament and Conveniency). 1712Addison Spect. No. 279 ⁋8 That serious Air which seems essential to the Magnificence of an Epic Poem. 1807T. Thomson Chem. (ed. 3) II. 85 Silica..is an essential ingredient in mortar. 1858Buckle Civiliz. (1873) II. viii. 425 Propositions which I hold to be most essential for a right understanding of history. 1874J. T. Micklethwaite Mod. Par. Churches 223 The essential quality of a monument is permanence.
b. Music. essential chord, in early use = common chord; in later use = fundamental, opp. to accidental (see quot. 1806). essential harmony (see quot. 1851). essential notes: the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of a chord. essential sharps and essential flats (see quot. 1806).
1721A. Malcolm Treat. Mus., Of the natural Notes of every Mode or Octaue, Three go under the Name of the essential Notes, in a peculiar Manner, viz. the Fundamental, the 3d, and 5th. 1806J. W. Callcott Mus. Gram. (1817) 55 Sharps or flats..which occur in the course of the Movement..are termed accidental, to distinguish them from those of the Signature, which are essential to the Scale of the original key note. Ibid. 202 His [Kirnberger's] arrangement of Chords, into essential and accidental. 1851Warner tr. Weber's Th. Composition 258 There are only certain particular harmonies, which belong to any one particular key..These are called the Essential harmonies of the key. 1880Grove Dict. Mus. I. 679/1 s.v. Harmony, The use of preliminary notes a semitone above or below any note of an essential chord.
5. That is of the nature of, or resembles, an essence or extract (see essence 10); that is in a state of essence.
1641French Distill. v. (1651) 113 This Spirit contains in it..essentiall Sulphur. 1673Grew Anat. Plants ii. i. v. §16 In the Vessels, a more Essential Liquor..in the Fibres a more simple and Essential Aer. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 120 ⁋2 They filled his apartments with alexipharmics, restoratives, and essential virtues. 1832Wordsw. Devot. Incitements, From humble violet—modest thyme—Exhaled, the essential odours climb.
b. essential oil, a volatile oil, obtained by distillation, and marked by the characteristic odour of the plant or substance from which it is extracted; as the oil of laurel, oil of turpentine, etc. Now often as a synonym of ‘volatile oil’.
1674Grew Anat. Plants Lect. i. (1682) 237 Having..made mention of the preparation of Essential Oyls. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. vi. §14 The soul of any plant..is neither more nor less than its essential oil. 1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 102 Volatile oil, likewise called essential oil, differs from fixed oil, in being capable of evaporation by a much lower degree of heat. 1859Gullick & Timbs Paint. 208 The Volatile or Essential Oils are destitute of the strength of the fixed oils. 1867J. Hogg Microsc. i. iii. 205 Sections of woods..containing gum, resin, etc., should be soaked in essential oil, alcohol, or ether.
†c. essential salt (see quot.). Obs.
1715in Kersey. 1718Quincy Compl. Disp. 9 The essential salt is that which is obtain'd by Chrystallization from the Juices of Plants. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 181 What the first chemists called, in general, the Essential Salts of Vegetables.
6. quasi-adv. = essentially.
1827Pollok Course T. x, His face with clouds Of glory circled round, essential bright.
B. n.
†1. What exists; existence, being. Obs.
1667Milton P.L. ii. 93 His utmost ire..Will..quite consume us, and reduce To nothing this essential.
2. Something belonging to the essence of a thing; an indispensable element or adjunct; also, in weaker sense, a chief or leading point. Orig. only in pl.; in later use, occas. sing.
†b. pl. = essential vows; see A 4.
1513Bradshaw St. Werburge 2372 Euer after to obserue the essencyals thre. Ibid. 1913 The sensuals thre. a1619M. Fotherby Atheom. i. iv. §3 (1622) 23 Vowes, and invocations, and other the Essentials of religion. 1750Harris Hermes Wks. (1841) 167 These matters..being rather among the elegancies, than the essentials of language. 1793Smeaton Edystone L. §266 If..all our essentials had duly performed their duties, we could have reaped little advantage from them. 1815Scott Guy M. xxxiii, ‘Well, well’, said Glossin, ‘no occasion to be particular, tell the essentials’. 1848Mill Pol. Econ. i. vii. §1 Natural motive powers..are a help, but not an essential of production. 1850A. Jameson Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863) 230 The distinction between the Franciscans and Dominicans lay not in essentials, but merely in point of discipline. 1860–1F. Nightingale Nursing ii. 7 The first essential to the patient, without which all the rest..is as nothing. 1873H. Spencer Study Sociol. v. 111 A tendency..to be blinded by exterior trivialities to interior essentials.
†3. pl. Inmost nature; ‘vitals’. Obs. rare.
a1716South (J.), The plague of sin has even altered his nature, and eaten into his very essentials. |