English → Latin
“essential” in Latin
propriusappropriate to oneself: (one's) proper, (one's) own (inalienably); belonging to oneself as property, or goods: (one's) onecessāriusunavoidable, inevitable; indispensable, requisite; necessarygravisheavy; pregnant; troublesome, hard
The English word essential itself goes back to Latin essentia, through essentiālis.
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
essential
proprius: in alicujus rei natura positus: ad rem ipsam or ad rei naturam pertinens: cum re ipsa or cum rei natura conjunctus (belonging to the essence or nature of anything): necessarius (necessary): gravissimus: magni momenti (very important). The essential point, caput rei (☞ cardo rei in Silver Age); quod maxime rem causamque continet (Cic.): an essential circumstance or point, res gravissima or magni momenti: an essential cause, prima or praecipua causa: only one point appears to be essential, una res videtur continere causam (Cic.): an essential condition, prima conditio: an essential difference, discrimen in ipsa rei natura positum or ad ipsam rem, or ad rei naturam pertinens: all states are alike in all essential points, eadem omnium civitatum est natura. Not essential; [Vid: UNESSENTIAL]: ☞ substantialis (e.g., differentia, Tert.) belongs to ecclesiastical Latin.
Essential oils, *essentialia, quae vocantur, olei genera (as technical term).
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for essential?
- The usual Latin words for “essential” are proprius, necessārius, gravis. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.