quintessence
quin·tes·sence
noun
the purest and most concentrated essence of something
the most typical example or representative of a type
Origin
PIE word *pénkʷe From Middle English, borrowed from Middle French, from Medieval Latin quinta essentia (“fifth essence, aether”), equivalent to quint- + essence. "Essence" in this context is a synonym for "element". In pre-atomic/Aristotelian theory, there are four known elements or essences - Earth, Air, Fire and Water - and a putative fifth element (aether), which is considered to be of exceptional superior quality to the other four basic elements.
Related words
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.