Welcome

My name is David Burrows and I am a freelance translator of Spanish into English. This blog contains some of my favourite words, a (mostly) amusing explanation of said words as well as some of my musings about translation. I hope you enjoy it.

Friday, 16 October 2009

Quintessence


Noun - 1) The most perfect or typical example of a quality or type
2) A refined essence or extract of a substance.
From the Latin 'quinta essentia' - fifth substance.

A classy word with great roots: the romans believed that the four elements (earth, wind, fire and water) were pervaded by a fifth substance, kind of like The Force. Perhaps this is where George Lucas got his inspiration. It has probably got something to do with the film 'The Fifth Element' as well. More importantly, it is the title of a song off the album 'Crack The Skye' by Mastodon.

It is mostly seen in its adjectival or adverbial forms: quintessential and quintessentially, as in "The Natural Daiquiri is the quintessential cocktail," and "He is quintessentially human." There seems to be something about the word that is undefinably British. Maybe it is the unwitting adoption of a posh accent when reading the example phrases above.

It is also one of those words that starts to look wrong if you look at it too much.

In any case, it should be used more.

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