Words · Meanings · Passages
Lexicon
Terms from the books in the Diotimos library, with definitions, translation notes, and links to their passages.
4,297 entries across 21 collectionsTerms beginning with L
1–36 of 110
La Chênaie
Lamennais’s house and the setting of much of the 1833 journal.
The Green Notebook
Labour
Ponos means labor, toil, or exertion; its plural ponoi here refers to the labors of bodily training.
The Lovers · Centuries of Meditations
Labyrinth and right road
The wrong road, labyrinth and right door give spatial form to the consequences of a mistaken subject.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Lack of discernment
Agnōmōn means without judgment; lacking discernment.
Lysis
Lake
Limnē is a lake or standing body of water.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Lamennais (Féli)
The teacher and host whose house Guérin chooses as a refuge.
The Green Notebook
Lampido and the Spartan royal family
Lampido is identified as daughter of Leotychides, wife of Archidamus and mother of Agis; the three men are described as having been kings.
Alcibiades I
Lampoon
Timon’s insult calls Empedocles a bawler of market-place verses.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Landscape
Paysage is a landscape apprehended as a scene; site can isolate a particular place, while campagne may mean countryside more broadly.
The Green Notebook
Language
Hellēnizein means speak Greek in the opening methodological remark.
Charmides · Alcibiades I+3 books
Language and gender
Flatland's bi-lingual existence is not ordinary bilingualism between national languages.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Lantern
The λύχνος of B84 is a lamp prepared for a journey on a winter night.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Last trumpet and resurrection
The last trumpet is invoked at pp. 101–102 to compare sudden metallic more-than-perfection with the transformation of humanity at the Last Day.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Laughter and ridicule
Rire names laughter and laughing; ridicule concerns what is made laughable or exposes someone to derision.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Laughter, blushing, and shame
Epigelan means to laugh at or over something; erythrian means to blush or grow red.
The Lovers
Laurel
Daphnē is the laurel.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Law
Νόμιμον means lawful or in accordance with accepted rule or custom.
Alcibiades I · Minos+5 books
Law's wishing and human achievement
Boulesthai ordinarily means to wish or want.
Minos
Lawgiver
Nomothetēs is one who establishes laws or rules.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Lawsuits and fine speaking
Dikē can mean justice, a judgment or a legal action; in the plural dikas at 225c it means lawsuits.
Hipparchus · Epinomis
Laziness
Paresse is differentiated by faculty and task: even laborious minds may be lazy in a particular operation.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Le Cayla
The paternal home named in the opening heading; a remembered landscape as well as a dwelling.
The Green Notebook
Le Parc
The country retreat named in the June 25, 1834 heading.
The Green Notebook
Le Val
The coastal household of Hippolyte La Morvonnais, his wife Marie, and their daughter Marie.
The Green Notebook
Leaf shedding
Phyllorrhoein means to shed leaves.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Learning
Manthanein means learn and, in appropriate contexts, understand; didaskein means teach.
Charmides · Alcibiades I+4 books
Learning and much learning
Polymathia is much learning, the possession of knowledge in many areas.
Alcibiades II · The Lovers
Least natural degree
Gradus is a degree or rank; minimus the least; naturalis qualifies the degree belonging to natural form.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Leaven
Leaven or sourdough names the influence against which the reader must guard in the margins of pp. 79 and 178.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Leaves
Leaves make vegetation’s renewal visible at the level of individual delicate surfaces.
The Green Notebook · Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Leisure
Scholē is leisure or available time, ascholia its absence or being occupied, and scholazein to be at leisure.
Theages · The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II+2 books
Length
Mēkos is length, one of the dimensions used to characterize magnitude.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Letter and spirit
The bare letter is wording taken without the natural sense that should govern it.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Letter and written character
Gramma is a written character or letter and, in broader uses, something written.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Letters and correspondence
A letter can carry words, remembered company, or actual fragments of the countryside.
The Green Notebook · René
Liber Saturni
The Book of Saturn is quoted as an authority on who can read philosophical books and how.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Books in the Lexicon
October 2026
Plato’s Alcibiades I Lexicon
Alcibiades I · Plato
176 entries · 701 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Alcibiades II Lexicon
Alcibiades II · Plato
94 entries · 290 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Traherne Lexicon
Centuries of Meditations · Thomas Traherne
471 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Charmides Lexicon
Charmides · Plato
173 entries · 777 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Empedocles Lexicon
Empedocles, Volumes I–II · Empedocles of Acragas
490 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Epinomis Lexicon
Epinomis · Plato
77 entries · 1,061 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Flatland Literary Lexicon
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions · Edwin A. Abbott
85 entries · 476 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Khunrath Lexicon
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum · Heinrich Khunrath
326 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Hipparchus Lexicon
Hipparchus · Plato
90 entries · 291 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Baudelaire Literary Lexicon
Intimate Journals · Charles Baudelaire
80 entries · 323 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Lysis Lexicon
Lysis · Plato
239 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I Lexicon
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I · Marsilio Ficino
231 entries · 1,313 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II Lexicon
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II · Marsilio Ficino
148 entries · 1,398 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Minos Lexicon
Minos · Plato
54 entries · 506 subsidiary terms
October 2026
René Literary Lexicon
René · François-René de Chateaubriand
81 entries · 275 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Stobaeus Lexicon
Stobaeus, Volume I · John Stobaeus
610 entries · 85 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy Lexicon
The Anatomy of Melancholy · Robert Burton
103 entries · 3,864 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Guérin Lexicon
The Green Notebook · Maurice de Guérin
165 entries · 0 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Lovers Lexicon
The Lovers · Plato
83 entries · 361 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Joubert Lexicon
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Joseph Joubert
459 entries · 110 subsidiary terms
October 2026
Plato’s Theages Lexicon
Theages · Plato
62 entries · 510 subsidiary terms