The story
- Medieval Latin · derived fromhaecceitas“thisness”
- English todayhaecceity
From Medieval Latin haecceitas (“thisness”) coined by Duns Scotus (from haec (“this, these”)) + -ity.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Today it means: The essence of a particular thing that gives it its unique particularity; those qualities that make an individual this specific individual and not some other. Full definition →