thisness means A unique, concrete and irreducible essence or identity of a particular thing or individual, distinguishing it from others of the same kind. It carries an Arena rating of 1534, earned across 4 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, thisness ranks #672 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #1,824 of 17,163 for Funniest Words, #2,855 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #3,790 of 17,151 for The Improbable.
Why “thisness” is a great word
The irreducible and concrete essence of a particular thing, the very quality that makes an individual itself and no other. From English 'this' + the noun-forming suffix '-ness'; a translation of the Medieval Latin philosophical term 'haecceitas' (from 'haec', 'this'), coined in the 13th century by Duns Scotus. Unlike 'quiddity' (which asks the general 'whatness' of a kind) or a 'universal' (which denotes a repeatable quality), thisness is the stubborn fact of singular existence. It is the precise scent of rain on a patch of dry earth, the particular warp in an old floorboard known only to your foot, the unique constellation of cracks in a favorite teacup—the silent, immutable fact of being *this* and not *that*.
Etymology
From this + -ness.
noun
- A unique, concrete and irreducible essence or identity of a particular thing or individual, distinguishing it from others of the same kind.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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