whatness
(ˈhwɒtnɪs)
[f. what pron. + -ness; transl. L. quidditās quiddity.]
That which makes a thing what it is; essential nature, essence: = quiddity 1.
| 1611 Florio, Quidità, the whatnesse of any thing. 1627 W. Sclater Expos. 2 Thess. (1629) 39 The kinde or quality, or if you'l so terme it, whatnesse of it. 1656 [? J. Sergeant] tr. T. White's Peripat. Inst. 198 The Understandablenesse of a thing, or the quiddity, the Whatnesse. 1870 Morley Stud. Lit. (1891) 266 Pressing for definition, you never get much further than that each given quiddity means a certain Whatness. 1889 Mivart Truth 212 We must..have the conception of the kind of thing the object is—‘what’ it is, or the idea of its ‘whatness’. |
† b. Used by N. Fairfax for: Statement of what a thing is, definition. Obs. nonce-use.
| 1674 N. Fairfax Bulk & Selv. 80 The definition or whatness of a thing ought to be of a thing as a thing. |