Quinta essentia, the fifth element beside fire, water, earth, and air the element that is necessary to explain the diversity and multiplicity of life, the finest or best of any substance. The quintessence is an element that permeates all nature and is the constituent matter of the celestial bodies. The scholastics of the Middle Ages believed it to be the ether, the substance above the sphere of fire, and of which the human soul was made. In medieval alchemy the quintessence was the best part of a chemical substance that could be extracted with chemical methods. The alchemists therefore also used it for alcohol, the best or finest part of wine.
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