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Quint means five, as in quintuplets. Essence in this word means elemental, essential, fundamental. Have you seen the film The Fifth Element? In medieval times it was believed that there were four elements: earth, air, fire and water. People believed that every single physical thing was composed of some proportion of these elements, not unlike our current understanding of elements coming together to form all the things around us. There was a mysterious fifth element, the element that makes up the stars. So quintessential means related to the most profound, mysterious fundamental component of a thing, or of a concept as the word is used today.

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13y ago

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