Understanding and quick-wittedness · Lexicon

From the book

Charmides

Plato · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordSynienai ta legomena is to understand what is being said.
In the CharmidesSocrates moves from bodily speed to mental excellence at 159e–160a.
In this edition“Quick-wittedness” is the specific rendering of anchinoia; “understanding” renders synienai.
A place to readSharpness and understanding in the argument against quietness.

Meaning

Synienai ta legomena is to understand what is being said. Anchinoia names quickness of apprehension; Socrates glosses it by oxytēs, sharpness, of soul. Noein and its compounds can mean thinking, noticing or having something in mind; enoei at 161d and 162b–d asks what a speaker meant. These are related functions, not identical technical terms.

Use in the book

Socrates moves from bodily speed to mental excellence at 159e–160a. Quick learning, lively teaching, ready memory and swift comprehension seem finer than their sluggish counterparts. Anchinoia makes the transition particularly clear: the value of intellectual acuity puts pressure on the claim that temperance simply is quietness. The comparison does not establish that haste invariably improves understanding; the argument selects cases accepted by Charmides and later qualifies its conclusion by allowing that some quiet actions may be fine (160b–d2).

The dialogue then tests the difference between repeating a formula and understanding it. At 161d Socrates assumes the author of “doing one's own business” cannot mean exactly what the words seem to say under his literal construction. At 162b Charmides admits he does not know the meaning and mischievously suggests that its author may not know either. Critias' anger draws out the epistemic point: a hearer's failure of comprehension does not itself prove the speaker's ignorance (162d).

There is also a practical counterpoint. Charmides pauses and considers before answering at 160e, immediately after quick apprehension has been praised. The narrator's amused description prevents us from treating the preceding exchange as a simple educational command always to respond quickly.

At 160d Socrates asks Charmides to gather or reckon together these considerations, syllogisamenos, before answering. The form is related to the later noun “syllogism”, but here it does not introduce an Aristotelian formal deduction with a specified logical figure. It describes thinking through the observations about what the virtue makes its possessor like.

Places to read

159e–160bSharpness and understanding in the argument against quietness
160d–ePause and inward consideration before the second definition
161d–162d2What the author meant distinguished from the hearer’s understanding

Translation in this edition

“Quick-wittedness” is the specific rendering of anchinoia; “understanding” renders synienai. “What he meant” for forms of noein marks communicative intention rather than an account of the later philosophical intellect or Nous.

ἀγχίνοια

Attested: ἀγχίνοια (anchinoia). Quick-wittedness, explicitly explained as a kind of sharpness of soul in the comparison with quietness. References: 160a. Lexical identification: lemma: ἀγχίνοια. See Understanding and quick-wittedness.

ἐννοέω

Attested: ἐννοήσας / ἐννόει (ennoēsas / ennoei). Consider or take thought; Charmides is invited to reflect, and Critias to notice the structure of a proposed capacity. References: 160d, 167c. Lexical identification: lemma: ἐννοέω. See Understanding and quick-wittedness.

νοέω

Attested: ἐνόει (enoei). Had in mind or meant; asks for a speaker’s intended sense of “doing one’s own business,” which may differ from a literal hearing of his words. References: 161d, 162b, 162d. Lexical identification: lemma: νοέω. See Understanding and quick-wittedness.

συνίημι

Attested: συνιέναι (synienai). Understand what is said; a mental performance in which quickness seems preferable to slowness. References: 160a. Lexical identification: lemma: συνίημι. See Understanding and quick-wittedness.