strange word -

[DarrenS]

I stumbled upon this word: "hacceity" - and could find hardly anything about it on the Internet. Google only comes up with 3 refs (2 reviews of a Goddard movie, 1 link to Guardian Notes and Queries (a fun site by the way - similar to the SD itself - http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/notesandqueries ))

Apparently, it means something like "the quality of being 'this'" - which intrigues me in its metaphysicality.

I checked Myriam-Webster, S-D (of course), Google and Altavista - nothing...

Anyway know of this word's exact meaning, etymology? Why is it so rare on the Internet? There are plenty of rare words but usually if you search for them you at least get a few hundred hits!

[Pjen]

I have seen this word used in philosophy texts. Can't be bothered to get the Oxford English Complete down, but I would bet it comes from Latin- Hic Haec Hoc (IIRC from forty years ago), the varieties of this, that etc. Thus This-ness Hacceity

Hell, I got the fourteen volume down- it is Haecceity:

http://uk.google.yahoo.com/bin/query_uk?p=haecceity&hc=0&hs=0

96 examples.

Looks like you have found a faux americanization of a word that generally retains the ae form. Perhaps if you consult a very large American dictionary you woukd find it spelt one way or another.

I have now found it under the ae spelling in both the Concise and Shorter Oxford English Dictionaries.

It is originally referenced to Duns Scotus ad means 'thisness', the quality of being here and now.

[Dijon Warlock]

My guess is it would come from haec, which is a declined form of hic, Latin for "this".