entity

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈɛn.tɪt.i/ (UK); /ˈɛn.tə.ti/ [-tʰi] (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed through entité or directly from Medieval Latin entitas (“being”),^[2][3] from Late Latin ens (genitive entis), a thing, being,^[4][2] which Caesar proposed as a present participle of esse, to be (see is),^[4][2][5] to render the Greek philosophical term tò ón, that which is,^[4] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *es- (“to be”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Being, existence: 1596 in Barnhart, the OED and MWU;^[2][6][5] NODE dates the sense a thing's existence to the late 15th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It was originally abstract.^[4] The essential nature of a thing is from 1643,^[6] and the concrete sense, something that has real existence, is first recorded in 1628.^[2][6] An actual quantity, however small, is an obsolete sense of 1626.^[6]

Timeline

• 1596 – being, existence.^[2]
• 1626 – a quantity (obsolete).^[6]
• 1628 – a thing that exists.^[2]
• 1643 – essential nature.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Something that exists as a separate and distinct unit.
2. The fact of existence; being.
3. The essence of something considered apart from its properties.

Word family

• entitatively
• nonentity

Related words

• ens
• essence
• is

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press