existencen.
/ᵻɡˈzɪst(ə)ns/, /ɛɡˈzɪst(ə)ns/, U.S. /ɪɡˈzɪst(ə)ns/, /ɛɡˈzɪst(ə)ns/ 1.
a. The fact, state, or property of existing or having objective reality; being, reality. Also: an instance of this.Not always clearly distinguishable from senses 1b, 1c (or they from each other).Earliest in in existence at Phrases.In early use sometimes contrasted with appearance: compare Phrases a.to call into existence: see call v. Phrases 3f.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > [noun]
being1340
statec1384
essencion?a1400
existencea1425
essencya1475
existency1548
essentie1552
essence1576
entity1596
existing1616
esse1621
beingness1662
a1425 (?a1400) G. Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) (1891) l. 5549 Forto se Hym that is freend in existence From hym that is by apparence.
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 167v (MED) Anoyntyngez..which be more made to apparence i. shewing or semyng & to þe desire of sikemen þan to existence i. beyng.
c1460 (a1449) J. Lydgate Testament (Harl. 2255) in J. O. Halliwell Select. Minor Poems (1840) 257 Of religioun I weryd a blak habite, Oonly outward as by apparence,..But in effect ther was noon existence, Lyk the ymage of Pygmalioon, Shewyd liffly and was nat but of stoon.
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1865) I. 267 (MED) The coloures of faces, quantites of bodies, qualites of sawles, haue theire existence [L. existunt] in man after the diuersite of heuyn.
1552 Abp. J. Hamilton Catech. i. iv. f. 12v God allone is be him self, of his awin natural existens.
1587 H. Parry tr. Z. Ursinus Summe of Christian Relig. ii. 482 He came from the Father, and came into the woorlde: that he returneth to the Father, with whom he was before. This doth not signifie a knowing, or a not knowing, but an existence and beeing.
1614 T. Jackson Third Bk. Comm. Apostles Creede iii. xxx. §5 The actual visibility of colours wholly depends upon the light as well for existence as duration.
1665 J. Glanvill Sciri Tuum: Authors Defense 20 in Scepsis Scientifica Matter is not necessary to the Souls existence.
1725 I. Watts Logick iii. ii. §8 An Argument taken from the Nature or Existence of Things.
1768 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued II. i. 14 Existence belongs solely to substance quality having none of its own.
1796 R. Kirwan Elements Mineral. (ed. 2) II. 156 The existence of Native Iron seems now placed beyond the reach of doubt.
1817 J. Mill Hist. Brit. India II. iv. ix. 298 It created some evils of the greatest magnitude which previously had no existence.
1856 B. Brodie Psychol. Inq. (ed. 3) I. ii. 56 These facts sufficiently proved the existence of some actual disease.
1868 Catholic World Dec. 368/2 Whoever says possibility, excludes, by the very force of the word, existence and reality.
1903 B. Russell Princ. Math. li. 450 The consideration of existence itself leads to non-existential propositions.
1954 J. Kerouac Let. 26 Aug. in Sel. Lett. 1940–56 (1995) 443 This ‘taste’ of cornflakes and sugar, the ‘taste’ has no substantiality of existence outside of my tongue and its taste-mind.
1998 R. L. Dennehy in A. O. Simon Acquaintance with Absolute i. 45 A hundred actual dollars is more valuable than a merely possible one hundred dollars, but existence adds nothing to the essence of the thing it brings into existence.
b. Continuance as a living organism; continued survival; life. Also: an instance of this.Sometimes depreciative: ‘a mere existence not deserving the name of life’.scale of existence: see scale n.3 5a. (to) struggle for existence: see struggle n. 1d, struggle v. 4.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > source or principle of life > continuance or tenacity of life > [noun]
lifeOE
livingc1350
existence1583
survival1598
survivancea1623
survivership1638
supervivency1659
vivaciousnessa1661
vivacity1663
survivorship1697
surviving1818
1583 G. Babington Very Fruitfull Expos. Commaundem. v. 217 So much more bound are those children to their parents, that receiue by them good bringing vp, than they which receiue but their bare existence in the world.
1629 T. Jackson Treat. Divine Essence ii. 149 Hee might, had it pleased him, have taken life and existence from all mankind, when he preserved Noah and his Familie.
1634 T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 169 Their famous Æsculapius, seeing no more money, limited my life to fiue dayes more existence.
1658 L. Willan Orgula ii. iv. 31 His Existence meerly did depend On his own Industry.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 68. ¶2 The Pains and Anguish which naturally cleave to our Existence in this World.
1766 J. Fordyce Serm. Young Women I. i. 31 Plodding along through a tasteless existence.
1799 H. Davy in T. Beddoes Contrib. Physical & Med. Knowl. 227 These, if not necessary to the existence of vegetables, may be expedient to their flourishing state.
1825 W. S. Landor in W. B. Scoones Four Cent. Eng. Lett. (1880) 441 I shall remember his [friendship] to the last hour of my existence.
1833 T. Carlyle in Fraser's Mag. Aug. 133/2 The foul sluggard's comfort: ‘It will last my time’.. . It will last thy time: thy worthless sham of an existence.
1870 C. Dickens Edwin Drood vii. 40 We have had a wretched existence.
1910 T. Common tr. F. Nietzsche Joyful Wisdom 219 The greatest enjoyment of existence is to live in danger!
1947 Sun (Baltimore) 5 Nov. 2/7 There is little incentive for him to do more than seek a mere existence for himself and family.
2010 P. Daniels Class Actor Prol. p. xvii I hadn't really got myself squared into a settled kind of existence.
c. gen. Continued being; continuance in being. Also: an instance of this.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > duration > [noun]
lengtha1240
date?1316
durationc1384
hautesse1399
quantity?a1425
periodc1475
tracta1513
allowance1526
continuance1530
wideness1535
continue1556
protense1590
countenance1592
stay1595
standing1600
dimension1605
longanimity1607
longinquity1607
insisture1609
existence1615
unprivationa1628
continuity1646
protension1654
measure1658
course1665
contention1666
propagation1741
protensity1886
1615 E. Evans Verba Dierum 62 The weakenes of mans Existence: that he can no more continue One Day without Gods sustenance, then the Adiectiue can stand without the Substantiue.
1640 W. Somner Antiq. Canterbury 3 Cleerely then Canterbury had an existence in the time of the Romanes Empire here.
1736 Bp. J. Butler Analogy of Relig. i. i. 15 We know not at all upon what the Existence of our living Powers depends.
1751 S. Johnson Rambler 13 Apr. 58 He..that allows himself to be dissatisfied while he can perceive any error or defect, must refer his hopes of ease to some other period of existence.
1811 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1838) VIII. 274 People who absolutely depend for their existence upon the continuance of His Royal Highness' protection.
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People viii. 492 The colony was now firmly established and the struggle for mere existence was over.
1901 Cent. Mag. May 15 The famous pizzerie of Naples, some of which boast a hundred years of existence.
1958 F. E. Zeuner Dating Past (ed. 4) 430 The average period of existence of a genus was 5·6 million years in the line of the horses.
2011 N.Y. Mag. 5 Dec. 40/1 In just two months of existence, OWS [sc. Occupy Wall Street] had scored plenty of victories.
2.
a. A mode or kind of existing; a way of life.automaton existence, death-in-life existence, sheltered existence, etc.: see the first element.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > state or condition > [noun]
statec1225
estatec1230
farea1325
casec1325
beingc1330
degreec1330
condition1340
suita1375
stature?a1513
existence1530
affection?1543
existency1587
subsistence1597
consistence1626
subsistency1628
tone1641
consistency1690
attitude1744
situation1765
working order1784
faring1811
status1837
figure1858
1530 J. Rastell New Bk. Purgatory i. xvii. sig. b3 What shall I call those thynges, whych haue such an existence, in transytory momentes that neuer shall haue ende nor fynysh?
1565 N. Sanders Supper of Our Lord ii. xxvi. f. 89 He in naturall existence, and among external things, hath as true a body and blood, as any creature hath a substance of his owne.
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) I. 296/1 In heauen the existence of his body is dimensiue.
1608 D. Tuvill Ess. Politicke, & Morall f. 46 Themselues alone will be thought the Numbers, that giue a substantiall existence to the being of them all.
1659 T. Fuller Appeal Iniured Innocence ii. 51 A meer Wit work, or Brain-Being, without any other real existence.
a1763 W. Shenstone Ess. in Wks. (1765) II. 52 Such appears to me to be the true existence of apparitions.
1796 H. Hunter tr. J.-H. B. de Saint-Pierre Stud. Nature I. i. 47 I shall, next, consider the effects of Water: in what manner heat evaporates, and cold fixes it; it's different existences.
1852 M. Arnold Empedocles on Etna, & Other Poems i. ii. 246 Other existences there are, that clash with ours.
1878 R. Browning La Saisiaz 28 New existence led by men and women new.
1923 P. G. Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves xvi. 218 I'm bound to say it isn't very often I find my own existence getting a flat tyre.
1969 Sun 22 July 1/2 On the join-up, Eagle and Columbia ended their separate existences [as space vehicles] and became Apollo-11 again.
2011 Independent 19 Jan. 30/1 Despite..the hard-scrabble existences they live, they are often looked down upon by other villagers.
b. In various religions and belief systems: any of the earthly lives through which a soul passes in a cycle of reincarnation.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > spirituality > soul > transmigration > reincarnation > [noun] > fresh embodiment of person
existence?1753
reincarnation1845
?1753 Masquerade No. 5 163 The Gods..have discovered to me..that I was a dog in my former existence.
1787 C. Wilkins tr. Hĕĕtōpădēs of Vĕĕshnŏŏ-Sărmā ii. 24 When he saw that they were confined in a net, he..demanded what it meant. Chĕĕtră-grēēvă replied,—What else..can it be, but the effect of the evil committed in a prior existence?
1863 E. Schlagintweit Buddhism in Tíbet iv. 25 Emancipation takes place either instantaneously, on account of the merit accumulated in previous existences, or [etc.].
1893 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Feb. 199/1 The spirit, not the body, is the true Ego, and..in your next existence you will be your same self, only encased in another fleshly envelope.
1903 Korea Rev. Sept. 386 The p'ansu..says, ‘In a past existence you were well off and you were kind to a poor starving dog that lived in your neighborhood.’
1962 A. G. Woodhead Greeks in West v. 156 The soul was a divine spark imprisoned in human or animal bodies for a cycle of existences.
2010 Jrnl. Mod. Lit. 33 ii. 95 Both poets..explore a Buddhist-influenced concept of reincarnation and multiple existences.
3. concrete.
a. Something that exists; a being, an entity.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > [noun] > entity, being, or thing
thingeOE
warec1200
beinga1393
matterc1450
body1587
essence1587
entity1596
existence1605
existency1628
existent1635
essency1647
exister1700
beënt1865
thang1932
1605 T. Tymme tr. J. Du Chesne Pract. Chymicall & Hermeticall Physicke i. iii. 10 Things naturall are called properly naturall existences or beings.
1630 P. Massinger Renegado v. ii. sig. K3v Prosper thou great Existence my endeauours.
1637 R. Knevet Funeral Elegies i. sig. A 3 More than these was shee..tongue, or penne of Man, cannot expresse Such bright unlimited existences.
1739 D. Hume Treat. Human Nature I. iv. 339 Since all impressions are internal and perishing existences, and appear as such.
1775 Fielding's True Patriot in Wks. IX. 329 I have heard of a man who believed there was no real existence in the world but himself.
1820 J. Keats Hyperion: a Fragm. ii, in Lamia & Other Poems 186 When all the fair Existences of heaven Came.
1846 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic (ed. 2) i. iii. §1 An enumeration of Existences, as the basis of Logic, did not escape the attention of the schoolmen.
1891 C. R. Francis in Indian Mag. Sept. 459 There is no limit to the ever-increasing number of deified existences.
1929 S. Angus Relig. Quests Graeco-Roman World xiv. 240 It is easier for all to realize the tangible existences than the immaterialities.
1955 E. Herbert Taoist Notebk. 3 T'ai Chi was presented as..a cyclic process of constant change, in the course of which were produced..and all forms and existences in the material world.
1998 A. Quinton Hume 17 Cause and effect are distinct existences; it is therefore never a contradiction to suppose that one occurred and the other did not.
b. All that exists; the aggregate of being.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > [noun]
kindlOE
worldc1175
framea1325
creaturec1384
universityc1450
engine?1510
universal1569
universality1577
mass1587
universe1589
all1598
cosmosie1600
macrocosm1602
existence1610
system1610
megacosm1617
cosmos1650
materialism1817
world-all1847
panarchy1848
multiverse1895
metaverse1994
the world > existence and causation > existence > [noun] > all that exists
existence1610
the ocean of beinga1651
nature1850
1610 J. Healey tr. St. Augustine Citie of God viii. vi. 307 From this invariable and simple essence of his, they gathered him to bee the vncreated Creator of all existence.
1651 J. Reading Guide to Holy City xv. 119 The naturall man in this existence neither doth receive, nor can knowe the things of Gods spirit.
1729 R. Whatley Let. to Bencher of Inner-Temple 18 As we our selves gave not to ourselves our Existence,..we have reason to suppose all other parts of Existence..has been so too.
1751 J. Harris Hermes i. vi. 88 Existence may be considered as an universal Genus.
1810 Edinb. Rev. Jan. 309 A mind full of ideas..not collecting its force into single and insulated achievements, like the efforts made in the fine arts but diffusing, equally over the whole of existence, a calm pleasure.
1868 ‘G. Eliot’ Spanish Gypsy i. 51 All beauteous existence rests, yet wakes.
1908 Monist 18 207 All existence is possessed of energy.
1955 J. Kerouac Let. 12 Oct. in Sel. Lett. 1940–56 (1995) 527 Up to the stars, the endless universe, beyond, beyond very existence and very conception.
2009 Wire Apr. 52/4 Both probe the dark underbelly of existence by using Industrial and psychoacoustic noise.
Phrases
in existence.† a. In reality (as contrasted with appearance or imagination); as a matter of fact. Also in very existence. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > reality or real existence or actuality > [noun]
truthc1330
acta1398
in existencea1425
realty1440
veritya1634
reality1647
actualness1668
actuality1675
thinghood1845
factual1855
out there1955
a1425in existence [see sense 1a].
c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) i. l. 2087 As it [sc. deceyt] were soth, in verray existence.
c1450 (c1380) G. Chaucer House of Fame (Fairf. 16) (1878) l. 266 Allas what harme dothe Apparence Whan hit is fals in existence.
a1500 ( J. Lydgate Q. Margaret's Entry into London l. 72 in Mod. Lang. Rev. (1912) 7 228 (MED) Erthe, See and Trees shall ben, in existence, Obeisaunt to mannes wille and plesaunce.
1564 T. Harding in J. Jewel Replie Hardinges Answeare (1565) viii. xxvi. 408 Through power of the Mystical Blissinge, the Signes be in existence, and in deede the thinges whiche they are beleued to be, soothely the Bodie and Bloude of Christe.
1601 J. Deacon & J. Walker Dialogicall Disc. Spirits & Diuels 148 All this (forsooth) by a pretie distinstion [sic] of a thing in existence, and of a thing in appearance.
1642 R. Baker tr. V. Malvezzi Disc. upon Tacitus 467 The patterne of a House is more perfectly represented in the understanding, then the fabrick of the House it selfe is in existence.
1651 J. Saint-Amard tr. F. Micanzio Life Father Paul sig. K6 Fra. Antonio, who in appearance seemed thereupon a little to withdraw himselfe from that conversation, but in existence and really they had private meetings together without the convent.
b. Existing, extant; living.
ΚΠ
1658 J. Rawson Gerizim & Ebal 109 The Lord determined not to deliver them,..and this was from all eternity before they were in existence.
1764 Gentleman's & London Mag. Apr. 232/1 Nor will his exploits in Portugal be forgotten, whilst Count de la Lippe is in existence to relate them.
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 117 The nobility and the clergy..kept learning in existence.
1815 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 585 The earth was the most consequential aggregate of matter in existence.
1896 Science 6 Nov. 670/2 The most primitive animals in existence are found in the seven Phyla of the lower Protozoan sub-grade.
1906 A. G. Leonard Lower Niger & its Tribes iii. 301 There is in existence a tree..that bears a red fruit, called blood-plum.
1989 C. Caufield Multiple Exposures (1990) vi. 52 There were very few alpha monitors in existence in 1944.
2011 Atlantic Nov. 110/2 ‘Brute-force attacks’, in which a hacker's computer tries every word or combination of words in existence..to see if it finds a match.
Compounds
C1. General attributive (chiefly Philosophy), as existence assertion, existence idea, etc.
ΚΠ
1883 tr. A. Rosmini Origin of Ideas I. 353 To distinguish ideal existence (existence-idea) from particular and real existence (existence-thing), I am accustomed to call the latter by the name of subsistence.
1900 W. E. B. Du Bois College-bred Negro 114 All this work can easily be done when the existence problem of these struggling institutions is nearer solution.
1953 V. Kraft Vienna Circle ii. 109 The assertion ‘that an analogous part of the thing exists in the unobserved part of space’..is an existence-assertion.
1974 F. Jameson Marxism & Form (new ed.) ii. 132 The dialogue with Freud..gives way to an interrogation of Heidegger and of existence philosophy.
1995 A. B. Come Kierkegaard as Humanist v. 191 He must remain faithful to his ‘existence-idea’.
2007 A. Theroux Laura Warholic xii. 157 In their childless state they seek to create, almost as an existence-assertion.
C2.
existence proof n. [perhaps after German Existenzbeweis (1872 or earlier in this sense)] Mathematics a proof establishing the existence of a mathematical entity.An existence proof can be constructive, in which case the existence of the entity in question is explicitly demonstrated, or non-constructive, in which case its existence is inferred as a consequence of other mathematical statements which are known to be true.
ΚΠ
1893 Q. Cal. (Univ. Chicago) Aug. 21/1 An Existence–Proof of the Group of Order 168 as a Group of Substitutions on 7 letters.
1955 Acta Mathematica 94 242 This is the first existence proof for differential operators with non-analytic coefficients which are not of a special type.
2012 S. M. Belcastro Discrete Math. with Ducks v. 124 These were non-constructive existence proofs because they showed that items existed while not producing any examples of the desired items.
existence proposition n. a proposition concerning existence; spec. an existential proposition.
ΚΠ
1912 Philos. Rev. 21 652 The true state of things is that every proposition is an existence-proposition, in the sense of being concerned with existence.
1937 Mind 46 53 This is certainly intended to be or to contain an empirical existence-proposition.
1944 M. Weitz in P. A. Schilpp Philos. B. Russell 86 An existence proposition is the traditional ‘I’ or ‘O’ proposition. For Russell it is a proposition which asserts the truth of at least one value of a propositional function; e.g., ‘Some men are brutal’.
2008 M. C. Kemp & K. Shimomura in M. C. Kemp Internat. Trade Theory xxiv. 199 The Walrasian theory of general equilibrium..lacked an existence proposition.
existence theorem n. Mathematics a theorem which asserts the existence of a particular mathematical object or class of objects that satisfies one or more conditions.
ΚΠ
1893 A. R. Forsyth Theory Functions Complex Variable Pref. p. vii The proof which is given of the existence-theorem is substantially due to Schwarz.
1968 Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 19 214 We will use this observation to deduce an existence theorem for homomorphisms between groups.
2006 A. Ash & R. Gross Fearless Symmetry viii. 98 We have an ‘existence theorem’ that shows us how to be sure there are lots of elements in G.
existence wage n. = subsistence wage n. at subsistence n. Compounds 2.
ΚΠ
1893 F. W. Hayes Great Revol. 1905 i. 58 Competition for employment amongst themselves kept them down to a mere existence-wage.
1921 L. D. Clark Minimum-wage Laws of U.S. 156 The wage fixed must of practical necessity contemplate continuous employment, as an existence wage permits no margin.
2000 R. Bradshaw Ragamuffin Angel xviii. 219 Mary's two oldest brothers..had been laid off from the pit since Christmas and were desperately glad of the existence wage Connie paid them each week.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2015; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.a1425