unessential

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English essential English unessential From un- + essential.

1. Not essential.

   “1676, Joseph Glanvill, Seasonable Reflections and Discourses, London: R.W. [and] H. Mortlock, p. 92, [I] have a question more to ask you on occasion of what you have told me; and that is, Whether you are to leave every Minister and Church, as soon as any thing is said that is really erroneous, in the lesser and unessential matters?”

   “1716, Joseph Addison, The Free-Holder, No. 39, 4 May, 1716, London: D. Midwinter and J. Tonson, p. 225, [He was] moved rather with Pity than Indignation towards the Persons of those, who differed from him in the unessential Parts of Christianity.”

2. Void of essence, or real being.

   “These [gates] past, if any pass, the void profound Of unessential Night receives him next Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being Threatens him,”

   “[…] even before the Heavens, before those material Orbs, that now rowl over us, were call’d from the dark, and profound Abyss of unessential Nothing:”