This week’s theme
There’s a word for it

This week’s words
charientism
oracy
haecceity
balter
caducous

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(hek/hik-SEE-uh-tee)

MEANING:

noun: The quality that makes something or someone what they are.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin haecceitas (thisness), from Latin haec, feminine of hic (this). Earliest documented use: 1635.
See also, inscape, quiddity, and whatness.

USAGE:

“Because what it is to love someone is to, in a sense, love them independently of their qualities. It’s to love them. Their essence, their haecceity, their utter specificity.”
Ezra Klein Interviews Amia Srinivasan: The New York Times; Sep 3, 2021.

See more usage examples of haecceity in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: