nihility

nihility

English

Etymology

From Renaissance Latin nihilitas, from Latin nihil (“nothing”).

Noun

nihility (countable and uncountable, plural nihilities)

1. The state or fact of being nothing; nothingness, nullity; nonexistence. [from 17th c.]
   • 2000, Gregg Easterbrook, "Review: The Quest for Quarks," The Wilson Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 1, p. 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.

2. (obsolete, countable) A nonexistent thing; nothing. [18th–19th c.]
   • 1788, Hester Thrale Piozzi, Thraliana, 26 December:

     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

• (nothingness): See also Thesaurus:inexistence