different between essence vs trait

English

Etymology

From French essence, from Latin essentia (“the being or essence of a thing”), from an artificial formation of esse (“to be”), to translate Ancient Greek ????? (ousía, “being”), from ?? (?n), present participle of ???? (eimí, “I am, exist”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??s?ns/

Noun

essence (countable and uncountable, plural essences)

2. The inherent nature of a thing or idea.
   • 1713 September 21, Joseph Addison, The Guardian, collected in The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, volume IV, Birmingham: John Baskerville, published 1761, page 263:

     CHARITY is a virtue of the heart, and not of the hands, ?ays an old writer. Gifts and alms are the expre??ions, not the e??ence of this virtue.
3. (philosophy) The true nature of anything, not accidental or illusory.
4. Constituent substance.
5. A being; especially, a purely spiritual being.
6. A significant feature of something.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

7. The concentrated form of a plant or drug obtained through a distillation process.

8. An extract or concentrate obtained from a plant or other matter used for flavouring.

9. Fragrance, a perfume.

Synonyms

• (inherent nature): quintessence, whatness; See also Thesaurus:essence
• (significant feature): gist, crux; See also Thesaurus:gist
• (fragrance): aroma, bouquet; See also Thesaurus:aroma

Derived terms

• in essence
• of the essence; time is of the essence

Related terms

• essential
• essentially
• essentialism
• quintessential

Translations

Further reading

• essence in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• essence in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• senesce

French

Etymology

From Old French, from Latin essentia. Sense 2 very likely from Latin ed? (“eat”), in the sense of 'what is eaten, fuel'. Many forms of the latter are indistinguishable from the former, and so the confusion with essence is very understandable.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /e.s??s/, /?.s??s/

Noun

essence f (plural essences)

1. (philosophy, theology) essence
2. petrol, gasoline
3. essence, essential oil

Derived terms

• poste d'essence
• station essence

Further reading

• “essence” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• censées

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French trait (“line, feature”), from Latin tractus (“drawing, pulling”). Doublet of tract.

Pronunciation

• enPR: tr?t, IPA^(key): /t?e?t/
• (traditional British pronunciation, now virtually obsolete) enPR: tr?, IPA^(key): /t?e?/
• Rhymes: -e?t, -e?
• Homophones: tray, trey (one pronunciation)

Noun

trait (plural traits)

1. (biology, psychology) An identifying characteristic, habit or trend.

   Synonym: characteristic

   • 2003, Robert S. Siegler, Judy S. DeLoache, Nancy Eisenberg, How Children Develop, Macmillan (?ISBN), page 89:

     Turning to our second trait, if you have straight hair, then both of your parents must carry an allele for this trait.

2. (object-oriented programming) An uninstantiable collection of methods that provides functionality to a class by using the class’s own interface.

   Coordinate terms: mixin, interface, class

Derived terms

• character trait

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• trait at OneLook Dictionary Search
• trait on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• phenotypic trait on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• trait (computer programming) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Attri, Ratti, ittar, tiatr

French

Etymology

From Old French trait, from Latin tractus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t??/

Noun

trait m (plural traits)

1. line
2. trait
3. color of a mineral
4. (dated) the action of hauling or pulling (by an animal of burden)
5. (dated) straps or cords placed on an animal of burden and attached to the vehicle which the animal pulls
6. (obsolete) an action reflecting a favorable or adverse intention by one person toward another
7. a remarkable or influential historical event
8. a particular passage in a speech that is well-written; an excellent or appealing characteristic of a speech
9. a vibrant, brilliant, or innovative idea
10. (religion) verses sung in a Mass between the gradual and the gospel reading
11. connection or link between one thing and another
12. (geology) color of the dust produced by a mineral
13. (chess, checkers) the privilege of taking the first turn/move
14. (oriented-object programming) trait

Derived terms

• avoir trait à
• cheval de trait
• forcer le trait
• grossir le trait
• tirer un trait
• trait d'esprit
• trait d'union
• trait pour trait

Related terms

• traire
• traiter
• traité

Verb

trait

1. third-person singular present indicative of traire
2. third-person singular past historic of traire
3. past participle of traire

Further reading

• “trait” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• tarit, tarît, tirât, titra, triât