non-essencen.
/nɒnˈɛsns/, U.S. /nɑnˈɛs(ə)ns/ rare before 20th cent.
Non-existence; non-being (cf. non esse n.). Also: a thing which has no substance, or which does not exist.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > existence > non-existence > [noun]
noughtOE
unbeing1435
non-beingc1443
nullity?1573
non esse1585
not-beinga1586
unexistence1593
nihilhood1602
non-essence?1605
inexistence1623
never-being1633
nonentity1643
non-existence1646
no-being1651
inexistency1660
nihility1678
cipherhooda1680
vacuitya1711
nothingness1766
nihilism1856
thinglessness1874
not-ness1933
nullness1949
?1605 J. Davies Wittes Pilgrimage sig. K1 What ioy is so great but the conceipt Of falling to his Infinition (Of blacke Non-essence) will confound it streight?
1908 G. Saintsbury Hist. Crit. (ed. 3) I. 70 [The subject is] all allegorized to the nth, pressed to death, broken on the wheel, sublimated to a non-essence in the Neo-Platonic laboratory.
1960 R. Campbell Coll. Poems III. 132 The Night's the image of Non-Essence, The image of unaltering repose.
1997 Jrnl. Polit. 59 288 Had Thiele followed Heidegger's analysis..he would have been forced to confront the difficulties of untruth, concealment, nonessence, and errancy.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.?1605