学习嘟嘟回归！
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今天看剧看到一个单词quintessential觉得很有意思，essential都知道，但这个quint前缀是什么？词典没写，quint单独的意思看起来让人疑惑，五胞胎，还有扑克里的同花顺​ ​ 特意上etymonline寻找答案，cross-refer到名词quintessence，原来这个单词可以追溯到希腊语，亚里士多德命名的"第五元素"即“以太”，然后被中世纪拉丁语借译，在哲学和炼金术领域使用，最后在1560s转为比喻义的“精髓”，“典型”至今。还成为形容词！

全文粘贴一下：

early 15c., quint-essence, in ancient philosophy and medieval alchemy, "a pure essence latent in all things, and the substance of which the heavenly bodies are composed," literally "fifth essence," from Old French quinte essence (14c.) and directly from Medieval Latin quinta essentia, from Latin quinta, fem. of quintus "fifth" (from PIE root *penkwe- "five") + essentia "being, essence," abstract noun formed (to translate Greek ousia "being, essence") from essent-, present-participle stem of esse "to be" (from PIE root *es- "to be").

The Latin term is a loan-translation of Greek pempte ousia, the "ether" that was added by Aristotle (perhaps following the Pythagoreans) to the four known elements (water, earth, fire, air) and said to permeate all things. It was naturally bright, incorruptible, and endowed with circular motion. Its extraction was one of the chief goals of alchemy.

The transferred or figurative sense of "purest essence" (of a situation, character, etc.), "an extract from anything containing in a small quantity its virtues or most essential part" is by 1560s.

后来发现，词典里查quintessence就可以看到词源 ​和etymonline一样，还是要查更基础的词才行。不过etymonline有跳转，词典没有…闹了个乌龙，不过网站上讲得更详细啦，也不亏（学东西怎么会亏嘛）！​​