nihility
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Renaissance Latin nihilitās, from Latin nihil (“nothing”).
Noun[edit]
nihility (countable and uncountable, plural nihilities)
- The state or fact of being nothing; nothingness, nullity; nonexistence. [from 17th c.]
- 2000, Gregg Easterbrook, “Review: The Quest for Quarks”, in The Wilson Quarterly, volume 24, number 1, page 110:
- Paeans and even poems have been written to the esoteric nature of the smallest building blocks of matter: how they manifest as everywhere and nowhere, seem to have come out of emptiness, and at the ultimate level seem to be distilled from pure nihility.
- (obsolete, countable) A nonexistent thing; nothing. [18th–19th c.]
- 1788 December 26, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Thraliana:
- Della Crusca says all past Actions are Nihilities; & that the immediate Instant is the whole of human Existence—A bad Accᵗ of it surely!
Synonyms[edit]
- (nothingness): See also Thesaurus:inexistence