>>256Another bit of latin in the english language that I find interesting is not too surprising, yet somewhat enlightening if I may say so.
It's the word "essence", which from the latin word, comes to mean "that which it is", with "esse" meaning "to be".
The -ence termination is not proper of latin, but english, just like we say "import
ance" and such words.
Of course it makes sense, for that is the meaning of essence: that which something is at the more fundamental level. Though sometimes we interpret the word much in the sense of "substance", that is, the material of which it is composed.
Now substance does have a latin root, but to the extent of my knowledge, only in the prefix sub- which as we all know means "under". Sub-stance would thus means "that which stands beneath"
Sorry for all this, I'm just an etymology freak, and quite frankly I think it's really interesting to know what the atomic elements of the words we use are and where they originate. They also give some material to use them creatively in speech.
