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• the choicest or most essential or most vital part of some idea or experience

• any substance possessing to a high degree the predominant properties of a plant or drug or other natural product from which it is extracted

• the central meaning or theme of a speech or literary work

• a toiletry that emits and diffuses a fragrant odor

• (often capitalized) A service book of the Eastern Orthodox Church that corresponds, though very roughly, to the proprium sanctorum of the Latin breviary. They include all the movable parts of the services connected with the commemoration of saints and in particular the canons sung in the Orthros, the office which corresponds with Catholic lauds, including the synaxaries, i. e. the historical notices regarding the saints of the day.

• The tables of scriptural lessons, arranged according to months and saints' days, which are often found at the beginning of manuscripts of the gospels or other lectionaries. The saints' days are briefly named and the readings indicated beside each.

• A collection of long lives of the saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church, whenever these lives, are arranged according to months and days of the year.