Words · Meanings · Passages
Traherne Lexicon
A Reader’s Companion to Centuries of Meditations
471 entries · 0 subsidiary termsTerms beginning with E
1–31 of 31
Earth
Earth can mean the ground that produces living things, the terrestrial region beneath the heavens, or the inhabited world offered to human enjoyment.
Centuries of Meditations
Eden
Eden is the garden of the first human life in Genesis.
Centuries of Meditations
Education
Education is the shaping of a person’s powers and valuations through teaching, example, conversation, and habitual surroundings.
Centuries of Meditations
Effusion
An effusion is a pouring forth.
Centuries of Meditations
Element
An element is a basic constituent of the bodily world within the inherited vocabulary of natural philosophy.
Centuries of Meditations
Emergencies
Emergencies are events as they emerge or occur.
Centuries of Meditations
Eminence
By way of eminence means in a higher, more excellent manner.
Centuries of Meditations
Emptiness
Emptiness is the absence of contents or of a satisfying relation to them.
Centuries of Meditations
Emulation
Emulation is the impulse to match or surpass another.
Centuries of Meditations
End and means
An end is the purpose for which something exists or an activity is pursued; means are what bring that purpose about.
Centuries of Meditations
Enemy
An enemy is one who stands against another; enmity is the relation of hostility.
Centuries of Meditations
Enjoyment
To enjoy is to possess or have the use of a good with conscious delight.
Centuries of Meditations
Enlargement
To enlarge is to make more spacious or extensive.
Centuries of Meditations
Entertainment
To entertain can mean to receive, accommodate, occupy, or delight someone; entertainment includes the provision offered to a guest or to the mind.
Centuries of Meditations
Envy
Envy is a hostile response to a good possessed or enjoyed by someone else.
Centuries of Meditations
Epithalamium
An epithalamium is a wedding song.
Centuries of Meditations
Equality
Equality means correspondence in measure, standing, or degree.
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Error
Error is a departure from truth in judgement or understanding.
Centuries of Meditations
Essence
Essence means what a thing is in its fundamental being.
Centuries of Meditations
Estate and fourfold estate
Estate can mean a state or condition of life, as well as the property and resources belonging to someone.
Centuries of Meditations
Esteem
Esteem is an assessment of worth that includes a fitting regard for what is assessed.
Centuries of Meditations
Eternity
Eternity names divine life and an extent not bounded by the succession of ordinary time.
Centuries of Meditations
Eusebius Pamphilus
Eusebius Pamphilus is Eusebius of Caesarea, the early Church historian, called Pamphilus after his teacher.
Centuries of Meditations
Evil
Evil can name wrongdoing, the corruption of a good power, or a harm suffered through the loss of something valuable.
Centuries of Meditations
Example
An example is a case or model that teaches, illustrates, or invites imitation.
Centuries of Meditations
Excellency
Excellency is the quality by which something is especially good, admirable, or fit for its purpose.
Centuries of Meditations
Excess and greed
Avarice and covetousness ordinarily mean acquisitive desire carried into vice.
Centuries of Meditations
Expatiate
To expatiate is to range freely over a spacious field.
Centuries of Meditations
Expectation
Expectation is an attentive anticipation of something not yet disclosed or possessed.
Centuries of Meditations
Experience
Experience is knowledge acquired or confirmed through actual apprehension and exercise.
Centuries of Meditations
Eye
The eye is a bodily organ of sight and a recurrent figure for attentive understanding.
Centuries of Meditations
About this collection
October 2026
Centuries of Meditations · Thomas Traherne
About this collection and downloads
471 contextual articles from the complete Centuries of Meditations, with 410 numbered positions, including the editorial notice at II.88 and the unfinished Fifth Century ending at V.10.
A companion for reading
This lexicon accompanies Thomas Traherne's Centuries of Meditations in the Diotimos Editions annotated edition of 2026. Its 471 articles explain the book's characteristic words, recurrent images, scriptural figures and habits of argument. They range from everyday things, such as air, corn and water, to the governing ideas of felicity, enjoyment, love, infinity and possession. The scope is the complete work: four numbered Centuries followed by the unfinished Fifth. The numbering runs through 410 positions, but there are 409 actual meditations. At II.88 the Diotimos edition prints only an editorial notice: its explanatory note says that Traherne skipped that number, with no missing text. The Fifth Century ends at V.10.
Traherne repeatedly gives familiar words unfamiliar work. To enjoy is to enter into delighted possession; a want can disclose a capacity; a common thing can be a greater treasure than a rarity. These senses are best learned by returning to the passages where they operate. The lexicon therefore offers interpretation alongside lexical explanation. It does not replace continuous reading, and a cross-reference is an invitation to compare, not a claim that two words mean the same thing.
The articles are arranged alphabetically. Traherne wrote in English, so the line beneath each headword gives English forms and useful equivalents. Related forms and less prominent senses can be found through the lexical index. Longer articles make room for the distinctions that carry the argument; shorter ones explain a particular image, older usage or local difficulty.
How to read an entry
The word identifies the sense that matters here, including older uses that a modern reader might miss. In Traherne follows the word or idea through the Centuries. This is a reading of the cited passages, not a set of definitions attributed to Traherne. Some articles include additional named discussions where a central concept needs more space.
The places gives selected, annotated references. These are guides to fruitful reading, not exhaustive concordances. In this edition points out a lexical, spelling or editorial issue that affects interpretation. See also links to other articles. The source note attached to the forms line records the textual basis of the article. Headwords sometimes normalize an inflected form or name a clearly present idea; the article states the relation to the wording of the text.
Three indexes supplement the alphabetical sequence. The Lexical forms and aliases index helps readers find related English forms and expressions. The Passage index leads from a cited meditation to the articles that discuss it. The Thematic index groups connected readings without imposing a single system on the book. These indexes are linked in the digital editions.
References and textual conventions
References take the form I.3, meaning the First Century, meditation 3; V.10 is the last surviving meditation. Links lead to the corresponding meditation in the book. Century and meditation numbers remain the stable references across formats.
The underlying text is the Diotimos edition, which identifies Bertram Dobell's 1908 edition and its public-domain transcription as its copy-text and describes manuscript-based corrections. Its introduction, explanatory footnotes and other 2026 material are editorial apparatus, not Traherne's prose. An article that uses a modern explanatory note identifies it as such. Historical definitions here are contextual reading glosses; no independent dictionary, manuscript collation or scholarly edition is silently claimed as a source.
Short quotations retain the wording of the annotated edition. Its original capitalization can be rhetorically significant without making every capitalized word a technical term. Brackets and struck-through readings in the source belong to that edition's textual presentation and should not be confused with new words supplied by this lexicon. Biblical phrases and inherited images are discussed as Traherne deploys them; the articles do not turn an allusion into proof of a particular unmentioned source.