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 M
1–36 of 161
Macrocosmic microcosm
The macrocosmic microcosm is the little world composed from the great world.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Madcap and madness
The adjective manikos characterizes someone as mad, frenzied or wildly excitable.
Charmides
Madness
Mania is madness; mainesthai is to be mad, and the participle can describe a mad person.
Alcibiades II · Stobaeus, Volume I+2 books
Magic
Mageia names magic or magical practice.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II+1 book
Magnanimous
Magnanimous means great-souled, generous in disposition, and capable of noble purposes.
Centuries of Meditations
Magnes-Iah
Magnes-Iah is Khunrath's hyphenated rearticulation of Magnesia.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Magnesia Catholica
Magnesia is the Philosophical name of the one natural subject from which Khunrath says the universal Stone must be prepared.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Magnetism
Magnetism gives an image of effective attraction whose absence can distinguish habit from living affection.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Magnificence
Magnificence joins greatness of scale with splendour and generosity.
Centuries of Meditations
Magnitude
Megethos is magnitude or size, distinguished from the number of things and from a thing’s possession of magnitude.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Mainland
Ēpeiros is mainland or continental land, contrasted with sea or islands.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Making and poetry
Poiein can mean making, producing, bringing about or simply doing.
Charmides · Stobaeus, Volume I
Male
Arrēn and arsēn are variant forms meaning male.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Malice
Méchanceté names wickedness, rather than every misfortune or every use of mal.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations
Manichaeans and Gnostic philosophers
The two group-names occur in the dative after assentiendum: the reader is told not to assent to them.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Manliness and courage
Andreiōs and andrikōs are related adverbs formed in the family of anēr, “man.”
Charmides
Manner and habits
Tropos means way; manner; in the plural, ways or habits of character.
Lysis
Manners
Mœurs extends from customary ways of living to moral dispositions.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Manual trades and social contempt
The first two participles identify a person cutting leather or making shoes and one selling preserved fish.
Charmides · Alcibiades I+1 book
Many and few
Hoi polloi means the many, oligoi the few.
Alcibiades II
Many crafts
Polytechnia means possession of many crafts or much craft.
Alcibiades II
Margites
Margites is the fool of the comic poem whose statement that he knew many works badly Socrates brings to bear on knowledge without knowledge of the best.
Alcibiades II
Marie La Morvonnais
Hippolyte’s wife, distinguished from their daughter of the same name.
The Green Notebook
Marriage
Mariage names both a durable relation and the wedding that publicly marks it.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations+1 book
Marriage and selection
Pedigree is a recorded line of descent.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Marrow
Myelos names marrow.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Marsyas Olympus and the Phrygian musician
Marsyas and Olympus are personal names; Phryx means Phrygian.
Minos
Masses
Ὄγκοι are masses or bulks; the inflected form ὄγκων occurs in Aëtius’ claim that the elements are assembled from smaller units.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Master
Despotēs is a master, a person with authority over a household and, in the relevant social setting, over slaves.
The Lovers · Lysis+1 book
Master of the feast
Symposiarchos means the person directing a drinking party.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Mastery, safety, and whatever chance brings
Enkratēs means having power over or being master of something, commonly with a genitive indicating its object.
Theages
Material and in matter
Enylos means in matter or material.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Material subtlety and coarseness
Subtil can concern fineness of substance, not merely intellectual cleverness.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Materialism and spiritualism
These terms distinguish orientations toward matter and spirit, but Joubert can separate an explanation’s method from its author’s sentiments and doctrine.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Maternal imagination
Phantasia can mean appearance, presentation, or imagination; the edition chooses imagination.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II · The Anatomy of Melancholy
Mathematics
Mathematics works with quantities, figures, or relations abstracted from material particulars.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
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