quiddity

hiustenhalkominen

ydin puhekieltä The essence or inherent nature of a person or thing.
1822, October, (w), The Old Actors, published in London Magazine, section on “Mr. Munden” (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10343 ebook):

A tub of butter, contemplated by him, amounts to a Platonic idea. He understands a leg of mutton in its quiddity. He stands wondering, amid the commonplace materials of life, like primæval man, with the sun and stars about him.

My vision reeked with truth. It had the tone,

The quiddity and quaintness of its own

Reality.

He represented my quiddity I suppose – the part which, thanks to you, has converted a black pessimism about life into a belief in cosmic absurdity.