essent

Coined by Ralph Manheim in his 1959 English translation of Martin Heidegger’s Einführung in die Metaphysik to render German Seiendes (as distinct from Sein), on the basis of essens, a faux-Latin present participle of sum.[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈɛsənt/
• Rhymes: -ɛsənt

essent (plural essents)

1. (philosophy) that which is; an entity, a being, an existent
   • 1959, Martin Heidegger; Ralph Manheim (trans.), An Introduction to Metaphysics, p.1:

     Why are there essents rather than nothing? That is the question. Clearly it is no ordinary question. “Why are there essents, why is there anything at all, rather than nothing?”—obviously this is the first of all questions, though not in a chronological sense.

   • 1992, Jarava Lal Mehta; William J. Jackson (editor), J.L. Mehta on Heidegger, Hermeneutics and Indian Tradition, p.51:

     As against this, the non-conceptual creative word, instead of enabling us to grasp and lay hold of what is already there before us, instead of serving merely as a means to describing what is present, calls into being. It is evocative of Being; it invokes that presence (Anwesenheit), i.e., Being, within which (in the light of which) anything can appear before us as an essent.

   • 2007, Marko Zlomislić, Jacques Derrida’s Aporetic Ethics, p.116:

     The essent can be things at our disposal; things at hand such as tools, or vehicles. The land, the sea, the mountains, rivers, woods are also essents. Trees, birds, insects, grasses and stones are essents.

• ensets, steens, tenses

• sent

essent

1. present participle of ésser
2. present participle of ser

Form of the verb sum (“am”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈes.sent/, [ˈɛs.sɛnt]

essent

1. third-person plural imperfect active subjunctive of sum

Form of the verb edō (“I eat”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈeːs.sent/, [ˈeːs.sɛnt]

ēssent

1. third-person plural imperfect active subjunctive of edō