DiotimosReading Desk

Main articles

Time, term and duration

zeit; Termin; Gedult; langsam (time and patience vocabulary)

Zeit is time or duration; Termin is the determinate term or period a reader might want prescribed.

From the book

The Sophic Hydrolith, Water Stone of the Wise

Anonymous and companion authors · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordZeit is time or duration; Termin is the determinate term or period a reader might want prescribed.
  • In the Sophic HydrolithThe main author says he ought to explain how long each action takes, then refuses to prescribe a certain period.
  • In this editionThe English keeps ‘no certain period’, ‘provided no other hindrance intervenes’, ‘approximately’ and ‘so to speak’ where the source qualifies duration.
  • A place to readThe main author refuses a certain universal period because philosophers report different durations.

Meaning

Zeit is time or duration; Termin is the determinate term or period a reader might want prescribed. Gedult is patience under that duration, not a numerical measure. The volume’s time-language includes approximate recurrence, long natural formation, prompt beginning and rhetorical contrasts between better and worse conditions.

The phrase schlechter Zeit in Nature’s promise means a short or slight time in the aligned translation, not a morally bad time. It must be read beside her insistence on long patience rather than treated as a universal deadline that cancels every longer period mentioned elsewhere.

Use in the book

The main author says he ought to explain how long each action takes, then refuses to prescribe a certain period. Philosophers differ, and one attains the result more slowly than another. Attention to Nature and the right mean is recommended instead. The following numerical unit does not remove the uncertainty: it allows for hindrances, warns against too narrow calculation and connects haste with malformed results. Its characters should not be decoded into a new confident timetable.

Nature’s Demonstration treats formation through the heavens and elements as a lengthy process. Its advice to study and observe requires time she ordains and patience endured, not merely private intelligence. Yet she also promises attainment in a short time through cooperation. These statements occur at different argumentative points: natural formation, learning and assisted completion are not automatically the same duration. The dialogue’s final alchemist accepts slowness while choosing to begin today rather than tomorrow. Prompt commencement is compatible with patient progress.

The Summary uses altered growing conditions to contrast an enormous ordinary timespan with rapid nourishment. Its garden version includes approximation and ‘so to speak’, marking rhetorical amplification. The comparison explains the advantage of suitable conditions, not a guaranteed schedule for the reader. Across the sources, time is therefore a test of correct relation to Nature and a limit on overconfident calculation as much as it is an implied quantity.

Places to read

  1. Part II: matter and the work · unit 26The main author refuses a certain universal period because philosophers report different durations.
  2. Part II: matter and the work · unit 27Numerical reckoning is bounded by warnings against narrow calculation, haste and intervening hindrance.
  3. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 3Nature’s formation of proximate matter takes a long time.
  4. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 11Nature insists upon ordained time and long-endured patience, not private reason alone.
  5. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 12She also promises a short time through cooperation with the practitioner.
  6. Philosophical Summary · unit 7Transplantation supplies an exaggerated comparison of accelerated nourishment.
  7. Philosophical Summary · unit 8The garden extends the comparison with approximation and an explicit figurative qualification.
  8. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 21The alchemist acknowledges slow progress while resolving to begin promptly.

Translation

The English keeps ‘no certain period’, ‘provided no other hindrance intervenes’, ‘approximately’ and ‘so to speak’ where the source qualifies duration. These small expressions govern the claims. It also translates Nature’s short-time promise without pretending the preceding long-time language is absent. The lexicon consequently records the contrasts and their stages rather than reconciling them into operational timings or an unsupported promise of completion.

Attested forms

zeit; Termin; langsamer; stunde; monat; zahl oder zeit; länge der Zeit; Gedult; langer Zeit; schlechter Zeit; einem Tag; hundert Jahren; einem Jahr; tausend Jahren; also zu sagen; langsam; heute; morgen