hypostasis

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English

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Etymology

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From Ecclesiastical Latin hypostasis, from Ancient Greek ὑπόστασις (hupóstasis, “sediment, foundation; substance, existence, essence”), from ὑπό (hupó, “under”) + στάσις (stásis, “standing”). Morphologically hypo- +‎ -stasis.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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hypostasis (countable and uncountable, plural hypostases or hypostaseis)

  1. (medicine, now historical) A sedimentary deposit, especially in urine. [from 14th c.]
    • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The Second Part […], 2nd edition, part 2, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act V, scene vi:
      Phi[sitian]. I view’d your vrine, and the Hipoſtates [sic – meaning Hipoſtaſis] / Thick and obſcure doth make your danger great, […]
    • 1999, Paracelsus, “Opus Paramirum”, in Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, transl., Essential Readings, North Atlantic Books, page 92:
      Thus the kidneys also have their particular excrement which is contained in it and is the hypostasis (deposit).
  2. (theology) The essential person, specifically the single person of Christ (as distinguished from his two ‘natures’, human and divine), or of the three ‘persons’ of the Trinity (sharing a single ‘essence’). [from 16th c.]
    • 1985, Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked:
      What did the God who hammered the universe together have to do with virtue, redemption, the strange doctrine of hypostasis?
    • 2000, Karen Armstrong, The Battle for God, Harper, published 2004, page 69:
      As Gregory of Nyssa had explained, the three hypostases of Father, Son, and Spirit were not objective facts but simply “terms that we use” to express the way in which the “unnameable and unspeakable” divine nature (ousia) adapts itself to the limitations of our human minds.
    • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 218:
      As a result of this verbal pact, the Trinity consists of three equal hypostaseis in one ousia: three equal Persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) sharing one Essence or Substance (Trinity or Godhead).
  3. (philosophy) The underlying reality or substance of something. [from 17th c.]
    • 1975, Mary Boyce, History of Zoroastrianism, volume I, Brill, page 59:
      Rašnu, the "Judge", appears to be the hypostasis of the idea embodied in the common noun rašnu, "judging, one who judges".
    • 1999, John Gregory, editor, The Neoplatonists: A Reader, page 13:
      The One, Intellect and Soul, then, are the three transcendent sources – or hypostases – of existence.
    • 2006, George E. Karamanolis, Plato and Aristotle in agreement?, page 320:
      as far as we know, Porphyry did not consider the divine intellect to be a hypostasis clearly distinct from the Soul, but he often designated it ‘hypercosmic soul’.
    1. (linguistics) A relationship between a name and a known quantity, as a cultural personification (i.e. objectification with personality) of an entity or quality.
    2. (psychology) Referring to the hypostatic model of personality; i.e., asserting that humans present themselves in many different aspects or hypostases, depending on the internal and external realities they relate to, including different approaches to the study of personality.
  4. (genetics) The effect of one gene preventing another from expressing. [from 20th c.]
    • 1997, Vogul & Motulsky, Human Genetics: Problems and Approaches, page 141:
      When penetrance is suppressed altogether, the term ‘epistasis’ (and ‘hypostasis’ of the suppressed gene) is used.
  5. Postmortem lividity; livor mortis; suggillation.

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