Outward features, appearances, or physical characteristics of something, especially as distinguished from inner qualities or substance.
From external (Latin externus, 'situated on the outside') + -s (plural marker). The plural form evolved to describe the multiple outer elements collectively.
Stoic philosophers warned against being enslaved by 'externals'—fortune, reputation, appearance—teaching that virtue (internal character) was the only true good worth pursuing, a radical idea that still influences modern psychology and minimalism.
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