different between massiveness vs substance

English

Etymology

massive +? -ness

Noun

massiveness (usually uncountable, plural massivenesses)

1. The property of being massive.
   • 1896 Sarah Orne Jewett, The Country of the Pointed Firs, Chapter 2,^[1]

     Her height and massiveness in the low room gave her the look of a huge sibyl, while the strange fragrance of the mysterious herb blew in from the little garden.

   • 1914, H. G. Wells, “The Common Sense of Warfare” in An Englishman Looks at the World (U.S. title: Social Forces in England and America), New York: Harper & Brothers, § 2, pp. 163-164,^[2]

     The progress of invention makes both the big ship and the army crowd more and more vulnerable and less effective. A new phase of warfare opens beyond the vista of our current programmes. Smaller, more numerous and various and mobile weapons and craft and contrivances, manned by daring and highly skilled men, must ultimately take the place of those massivenesses.

   • 1920, G. K. Chesterton, The New Jerusalem, Chapter 11,^[3]

     A Norman capital can be heavy because the Norman column is thick, and the whole thing expresses an elephantine massiveness and repose.

   • 1958, Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart, London: William Heinemann, Chapter 11,

     There was an oil lamp in all the four huts on Okonkwo's compound, and each hut seen from the others looked like a soft eye of yellow half-light set in the solid massiveness of night.

English

Alternative forms

• substaunce (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English substance, from Old French substance, from Latin substantia (“substance, essence”), from subst?ns, present active participle of subst? (“exist”, literally “stand under”), from sub + st? (“stand”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?s?bst?ns/, [?s?bst?nts]

Noun

substance (countable and uncountable, plural substances)

1. 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.

   Synonyms: matter, stuff

2. The essential part of anything; the most vital part.

   • 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.

   Synonyms: crux, gist

3. Substantiality; solidity; firmness.

4. Material possessions; estate; property; resources.

   • And there wasted his substance with riotous living.
5. A form of matter that has constant chemical composition and characteristic properties.
6. Drugs (illegal narcotics)

   Synonyms: dope, gear

7. (theology) Hypostasis.

Synonyms

• (physical matter): See also Thesaurus:substance
• (essential part of anything): See also Thesaurus:gist
• (drugs): See also Thesaurus:recreational drug

Related terms

Translations

Verb

substance (third-person singular simple present substances, present participle substancing, simple past and past participle substanced)

1. (rare, transitive) To give substance to; to make real or substantial.

See also

• style

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin substantia (“substance, essence”), from subst?ns, present active participle of subst? (“exist”, literally “stand under”), from sub + st? (“stand”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /syp.st??s/
• Rhymes: -??s

Noun

substance f (plural substances)

1. substance

Derived terms

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• cubassent

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French substance.

Noun

substance

1. essence

Descendants

• English: substance

Old French

Alternative forms

• sostance, sustance

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin substantia.

Noun

substance f (oblique plural substances, nominative singular substance, nominative plural substances)

1. most essential; substantial part
2. existence

Related terms

• substantiel

Descendants