suchness
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From English dialect, from Middle English swichnesse (“the quality or nature of a thing”), from Old English swilċnes (“quality”), equivalent to such -ness. Reinforced also as a calque of Sanskrit तथाता (tathātā).
Noun
[edit]suchness (usually uncountable, plural suchnesses)
- The natural state of a person or thing; quality; character or worth.
- 1654, Walter Charleton, Physiologia Epicuro-Gassendo-Charltoniana:
- The importance of which may be fully and plainly rendered thus; that since nothing in the Universe stands possessed of a Real or True Nature, i.e. doth constantly and invariately hold the precise Quale, or Suchness of their particular Entity, to Eternity; […]
- (philosophy, chiefly Buddhism) Existence per se.
- ca. 1928, Hans Driesch, "Philosophy of Nature", in, 1928, Edward Leroy Schaub, ed., Philosophy Today: Essays on Recent Developments in the Field of Philosophy, page 431,
- The same relation may prevail between the suchness of willing in men and the realization of that willing.
- 1955, J. D. Salinger, "Franny", in, 1961, Franny and Zooey, 1991 LB Books edition, page 22,
- Without any apparent regard for the suchness of her environment, she sat down.
- 1988, Thich Nhat Hanh, The Sun My Heart: From Mindfulness to Insight Contemplation, Parallax Press, →ISBN, page 94:
- Rather than give an answer, you have to section the tangerine and invite the questioner to have a taste. Doing this, you allow him or her to enter the suchness of the tangerine without any verbal or conceptual description.
- ca. 1928, Hans Driesch, "Philosophy of Nature", in, 1928, Edward Leroy Schaub, ed., Philosophy Today: Essays on Recent Developments in the Field of Philosophy, page 431,
Translations
[edit]existence per se
Further reading
[edit]Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms suffixed with -ness
- English terms calqued from Sanskrit
- English terms derived from Sanskrit
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Philosophy
- en:Buddhism