the.com/essence
the irreducible whatness left after you've boiled away everything a thing could survive losing
aristotleCoined it as to ti en einai, the what-it-was-to-be
perfume tradeEssential oils are plant essences squeezed into bottled identity
existentialismSartre flipped it: existence precedes essence for humans
chemistry rootLatin essentia, fabricated from esse, to be
alchemyThe quintessence was a fifth element beyond earthly four