unessential en · ADJ
Etymology
Etymology tree English un- Proto-Indo-European *h₁es- Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- Proto-Indo-European *-t Proto-Indo-European *bʰúHt Proto-Italic *ezom~*som Archaic Latin 𐌄𐌔𐌏𐌌 (esom) Old Latin esum Latin sumder. Latin *essēns Proto-Indo-European *-(i)yós Proto-Italic *-ijos Proto-Italic *-ios Old Latin -ios Latin -ius Latin -ia Latin essentia Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- Proto-Indo-European *-is Proto-Indo-European *h₂élisder.? Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālis Late Latin essentiālisbor. English essential English unessential From un- + essential.
Meanings
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Not essential.
But all this part of it seemed remote and unessential.
1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 9, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN:1716, Joseph Addison, The Free-Holder, No. 39, 4 May, 1716, London: D. Midwinter and J. Tonson, p. 225, [He was] moved rather with Pity than Indignation towards the Persons of those, who differed from him in the unessential Parts of Christianity.
“[…] strangeness is not in the nature of a thing, but in its relation to something extrinsic—in this case an unessential observer.”
1886 May – 1887 April, Thomas Hardy, chapter 18, in The Woodlanders […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:1676, Joseph Glanvill, Seasonable Reflections and Discourses, London: R.W. [and] H. Mortlock, p. 92, [I] have a question more to ask you on occasion of what you have told me; and that is, Whether you are to leave every Minister and Church, as soon as any thing is said that is really erroneous, in the lesser and unessential matters?
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Void of essence, or real being.
These [gates] past, if any pass, the void profound Of unessential Night receives him next Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being Threatens him,
1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 438-441:[…] even before the Heavens, before those material Orbs, that now rowl over us, were call’d from the dark, and profound Abyss of unessential Nothing:
1686, William Hall, A sermon preach'd before Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, London: William Grantham, page 7:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most unessential | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more unessential | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |
Antonyms
Deriveds
unessentialness · unessentially · unessentiality