nothingness

Etymology

It is formed from English nothing + -ness.^[1][2][3][4] The philosophical sense follows French néant, first used in this way by Sartre in “L'Etre et le Néant” (1943),^[1] and the Buddhist sense renders the term that English also borrowed as sunyata.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The realm of non-existence, that which does not exist: before 1631, in John Donne's Nocturnal.^[1][5] Etymonline dates the word to the 1630s,^[2] Dictionary.com to 1625–35 and Merriam-Webster to about 1631.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Soon after Donne the word was also used of insignificance and of the futility or vanity of something (both 1646), and of what has no value (1652); in 1652 it was also first a count noun for a worthless thing.^[1] Johnson (1755) gave "nonexistence" and "thing of no value", quoting Donne and Hudibras.^[5] The state of not existing, as in to sink into nothingness, is recorded from 1766, and the absence or end of consciousness or life from 1813, in Byron's Giaour.^[1] Two technical senses came in the 20th century: the Buddhist one in 1940 and that of existential philosophy in 1946.^[1]

Timeline

• before 1631 – the realm of non-existence.^[1]
• 1646 – futility or vanity; insignificance.^[1]
• 1652 – that which has no value; a worthless thing.^[1]
• 1766 – the state of not existing.^[1]
• 1813 – absence or end of consciousness or life.^[1]
• 1940 – in Buddhism, sunyata.^[1]
• 1946 – in existential philosophy.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of not existing; nonexistence: The last of the flames shrank into nothingness.^[7][6][1]
2. The absence or end of consciousness or life; death.^[7][6][1]
3. Complete insignificance or worthlessness.^[7][6][1]
4. Something worthless or unimportant.^[7][1]
5. (philosophy) In existential thought, non-being, often capitalised.^[1]
6. (Buddhism) The same as sunyata.^[1]

Related words

• nothing

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins