In
philosophy,
essence is the attribute or set of attributes that make an entity or
substance what it fundamentally is, and which it has by
necessity, and without which it loses its
identity. Essence is contrasted with
accident: a property that the entity or substance has
contingency, without which the substance can still retain its identity. The concept originates with Aristotle, who used the
Greek expression
to ti ên einai (τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι, literally meaning "the what it was to be" and corresponding to the
scholastic term
quiddity) or sometimes the shorter phrase
to ti esti (τὸ τί ἐστι, literally meaning "the what it is" and corresponding to the scholastic term
haecceity) for the same idea. This phrase presented such difficulties for its Latin translators that they coined the word
essentia (English "essence") to represent the whole expression. For Aristotle and his scholastic followers, the notion of essence is closely linked to that of definition (ὁρισμός
horismos).