substance
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English substance, from Old French substance, from Latin substantia (“substance, essence”), from substāns, present active participle of substō (“exist”, literally “stand under”), from sub + stō (“stand”). Displaced native Old English andweorc.
Pronunciation
Noun
substance (countable and uncountable, plural substances)
- Physical matter; material.
- 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations:
- Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXX, in Francesca Carrara. , volume II, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 308:
- His wasted hands were stretched out, and worked with a quick and convulsive motion, as if catching some small substances which kept eluding their grasp;...
- 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
- The essential part of anything; the most vital part.
- 1667, John Dryden, Annus Mirabilis: The Year of Wonders, 1666. , London: Henry Herringman, , →OCLC, (please specify the stanza number):
- Heroic virtue did his actions guide, / And he the substance, not the appearance, chose.
- 1684-1690, Thomas Burnet, Sacred Theory of the Earth
- This edition is the same in substance with the Latin.
- 1796, Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace:
- It is insolent in words, in manner; but in substance it is not only insulting, but alarming.
- Substantiality; solidity; firmness.
- Some textile fabrics have little substance.
- Material possessions; estate; property; resources.
- a man of substance
- 1611, The Holy Bible, (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Luke 15:13:
- And there wasted his substance with riotous living.
- c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :
- Thy substance, valued at the highest rate, / Cannot amount unto a hundred marks.
- 1711 December 8, [Jonathan Swift], The Conduct of the Allies, and of the Late Ministry, in Beginning and Carrying on the Present War, 4th edition, London: John Morphew , published 1711, →OCLC, page 26:
- And as we have waſted our Strength and vital Subſtance in this profuſe manner, ſo we have ſhamefully miſapplied it to Ends at leaſt very different from thoſe for which we undertook the War, and often to effect others which after a Peace we may ſeverely repent.
- Drugs (illegal narcotics)
- (theology, philosophy) Ousia, essence; underlying reality or hypostasis in the philosophical sense.
Synonyms
- (physical matter): See also Thesaurus:substance
- (essential part of anything): See also Thesaurus:gist
- (drugs): See also Thesaurus:recreational drug
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
physical matter; material — see also matter
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essential part
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substantiality; solidity; firmness
material possessions
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a form of matter with constant chemical composition and characteristic properties
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drugs
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theology: hypostasis — see hypostasis
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Verb
substance (third-person singular simple present substances, present participle substancing, simple past and past participle substanced)
- (rare, transitive) To give substance to; to make real or substantial.
- 1873, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, The Other Girls, page 335:
- If life were nothing but what gets phrased and substanced, the world might as well be rolled up and laid away again in darkness.
- 1982, Dhupaty V. K. Raghavacharyulu, The Song of the Red Rose and Other Poems, page 78:
- The calm ruminating / Reverie, substancing / Intellect into emotion, / Is shelter enough for love / Unhumiliated by faith.
See also
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin substantia (“substance, essence”), from substāns, present active participle of substō (“exist”, literally “stand under”), from sub + stō (“stand”).
Pronunciation
Noun
substance f (plural substances)
Derived terms
Further reading
- “substance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.
Anagrams
Middle English
Etymology
From Old French substance.
Noun
substance
- essence
- c. 15th century, Julian of Norwich, The Long Text; republished as chapter XLV, in A Book of Showings: The Long Text, edited from MS BN Fonds anglais 40, , Toronto, Ont.: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1978:
- God demyth vs vpon oure kyndely substance, whych is evyr kepte one in hym, hole and safe without ende;
- God judges us according to our true essence, which he keeps inside himself, whole and safe, always.
Descendants
- English: substance
Old French
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin substantia.
Noun
substance oblique singular, f (oblique plural substances, nominative singular substance, nominative plural substances)
- most essential; substantial part
- existence