Why “materiality” is a great word
MATERIALITY — [Noun] The quality of having physical substance and existence, or the relevance of a fact to a legal or accounting decision. From English material (from Latin māteriālis, from māteria "matter, substance") + the suffix -ity (from Latin -itās, denoting quality or state), perhaps modelled on the Medieval Latin māteriālitās. Unlike immateriality, which explicitly negates substance or relevance, or ethereality, which suggests a delicate, spiritual intangibility, materiality insists on the stubborn, consequential fact of the matter. It is the cool heft of a river stone in the palm, the gritty resistance of raw linen between the fingers, and the palpable warmth of a sun-baked brick wall—the quiet, brute argument against abstraction, reminding us that what weighs and counts is, finally, what is.