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I appear at the end of the oldest thing in the entire world.

I am fundamental to society, to the Earth, and to the universe.

You probably cannot live without me, although I've seen one human do it before in 1939.

I can be small or big, or any color, or any direction.

What am I?

Hint:

By Gads, this conundrum is difficult!

Note: This puzzle might be too general, so I made it very clear in the hint as to why this puzzle is not too broad. Please given an explanation to the hint in your answer.

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    $\begingroup$ we can't post a correct answer if we can't actually figure it out in the first place :c $\endgroup$
    – L_Church
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 13:54
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    $\begingroup$ Is it relevent that coincidentally 1939 marked the beginning of World War II? $\endgroup$
    – Prince North Læraðr
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 18:41
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    $\begingroup$ There's an answer already posted that appears to be more than plausible, and which you indicated is "not quite correct"; but forward motion beyond that answer seems to have stopped. Especially when an answer is close enough, but lacks little more than specific details that may not ever occur to anyone who isn't inside your head, some guidance to the answerers to help them get closer to your intended solution is a good idea. $\endgroup$
    – Rubio ♦
    Commented Mar 13, 2018 at 7:00

3 Answers 3

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Here is my Solution

1) I appear at the end of the oldest thing in the entire world.

The oldest thing in the entire world is "space" because it has been there since the big bang. Or, it could be "time"...not sure which one is the correct answer. Both of these words end in the letter 'e'.

2) I am fundamental to society, to the Earth, and to the universe.

All these words contain the letter 'e'.

3) You probably cannot live without me, although I've seen one human do it before in 1939.

I actually got this by first reading the hint and then reading this clue and then finding out the answer, and then reading the hint again and then reading this clue again.

By Gads can be rearranged to Gadsby, which is a book without using the letter 'e' which was published in 1939. Also, fun fact: that sentence in the hint doesn't use the letter 'e'

4) I can be small or big, or any color, or any direction.

The letter e can be small, as in lowercase, big as in uppercase, or any direction as in reversed as in the latin letter 'e'.

Hence

The answer, if you haven't figure it out by now, is

The letter 'e'.

Close enough?

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    $\begingroup$ I don't see a related puzzle with that number of votes. Link? $\endgroup$
    – ferret
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 2:00
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    $\begingroup$ Hmm, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple (six colors of the rainbow, one of which is renamed) all contain 'e', not sure if that's relevant :P $\endgroup$
    – somebody
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 2:01
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    $\begingroup$ @frabjrew the OP found out and edited his question, so the keywords matching it to the related question are gone. I wouldn't want to spoil the puzzle by putting the link in comments, anyways :D $\endgroup$
    – NL628
    Commented Mar 2, 2018 at 4:08
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    $\begingroup$ @LifesavingLinen What exactly is wrong though? As far as I can see, only #4 could possibly be wrong $\endgroup$
    – somebody
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 1:19
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    $\begingroup$ @ColdFrog ... "e" is the most common letter in English $\endgroup$
    – somebody
    Commented Mar 13, 2018 at 2:52
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My Answer

I believe it's

Race / Individuality

1.

The end of the oldest thing in the world (space), has ace. Just add an r and you have race.

2.

History often uses race terms. Earth is divided into countries of different races. The universe can't exist without different particles.

3.

The holocaust was happening in 1939 where the Germans mass slaughtered the Jews. Jews could hide by acting like they didn't believe in Judaism aka remove their individuality

4.

A Race could have a big or small population, it's often identified by colour and where it is on the map (Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern)

5.

I don't know. The closest I can get is that the therm Egads is usually associated with the British, making the race more individual, which is a bit of a stretch.

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I could not find an answer yet but got a a clue for the hint in case @NL628 was wrong about it (at least I hope it's not all red herrings):

The Hint:

The hint is a pleonasm and Gad is a god of fortune or destiny

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