Definition of "essent"

Why are there essents rather than nothing? That is the question. Clearly it is no ordinary question. “Why are there essents, why is there anything at all, rather than nothing?”—obviously this is the first of all questions, though not in a chronological sense.

1959, Martin Heidegger, translated by Ralph Manheim, An Introduction to Metaphysics, page 1

As against this, the non-conceptual creative word, instead of enabling us to grasp and lay hold of what is already there before us, instead of serving merely as a means to describing what is present, calls into being. It is evocative of Being; it invokes that presence (Anwesenheit), i.e., Being, within which (in the light of which) anything can appear before us as an essent.

1992, Jarava Lal Mehta, edited by William J. Jackson, J.L. Mehta on Heidegger, Hermeneutics and Indian Tradition, page 51

The essent can be things at our disposal; things at hand such as tools, or vehicles. The land, the sea, the mountains, rivers, woods are also essents. Trees, birds, insects, grasses and stones are essents.

2007, Marko Zlomislić, Jacques Derrida’s Aporetic Ethics, page 116