Investigator Jeroen Jansen writes: “On the Merriam-Webster site I found a description of the word ‘quintessence‘ as the ‘Word of the day’. The elaboration under the paragraph ‘Did you know?’ pretty much sums up the principle of science and its evolution, in my humble opinion.” It says:
Did you know?
Long ago, when people believed that the earth was made up of four elements?earth, air, fire, and water ? they thought the stars and planets were made up of yet another element. In the Middle Ages, people called this element by its Medieval Latin name, “quinta essentia,” literally, “fifth essence.” Our forebears believed the quinta essentia was essential to all kinds of matter, and if they could somehow isolate it, it would cure all disease. We have since given up on that idea, but we kept “quintessence,” the offspring of “quinta essentia,” as a word for the purest essence of a thing. Modern physicists have given “quintessence” a new twist ? they use it for a form of so-called “dark energy,” which is believed to make up 70 percent of the universe.