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 N
37–61 of 61
News
News is information of something newly disclosed or brought from afar.
Centuries of Meditations
Nicodemus and hidden disciples
“In good Nicodemus fashion” describes the doubting or reserved posture introduced at p. 25.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Night
Nyx is night, opposed to day in the recurring order of the heavens.
Stobaeus, Volume I · The Green Notebook+1 book
Night vision
Nyktōr means by night.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Night-born shoots
The “night-born shoots” of B62 are shoots associated with men and women, not a separate botanical species.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
No less and equal comparison
Hētton is the comparative adverb “less”; negation can deny inferiority without asserting superiority.
Charmides
Nobility
Noblesse and noble carry a tension between social distinction and a quality of soul or conduct.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Nobility of birth
Eugeneia is noble birth or excellence of origin.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Noble birth and fine qualities
Gennaios means noble, well-born, fine; used of lineage, love, and physique.
Lysis
Nocturnal Council and the final summons to wisdom
Nykterinos means nocturnal or belonging to the night.
Epinomis
Non naturals
The “six non-natural things” are the conditions of living whose management can preserve or disturb health: diet; retention and evacuation; air; exercise, including its opposition to rest; sleep and waking; and the passions or “perturbations of the minde.”
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Nonbeing
To mē on is “what is not.” Its philosophical significance depends on what kind of being is denied and on the contrast in which it appears.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
North wind
Boreas names a northern wind and can also serve as a personified name in poetry.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Nose and nostril
Rhis names the nose or, in the plural, the nostrils as bodily openings.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Notebook
Cahier names the physical notebook and, by personification, the intimate addressee made through writing.
The Green Notebook
Nothingness
Néant can name what seems absent or without substance, what offers thought no hold, or what has been lost.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations
Notion
Notion can be a first or comparatively undeveloped intellectual apprehension.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Nourishment and digestion
Joubert distinguishes taking something in from being nourished by it.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II+2 books
Nourishment and the life-giving form
Alimentum is nourishment or its supply; coalescere here describes living growth.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II
Novel
Roman is a narrative genre and a comparison for a manner of reading.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Number
Arithmos is number; arithmētikē arithmetic or the expertise concerned with number; arithmētikos describes an ability to count.
Epinomis · Stobaeus, Volume I+4 books
Numbers themselves and the first mathematical study
Arithmoi autoi is the normalized expression for numbers themselves; the actual construction at 990c is genitive, arithmōn autōn.
Epinomis
Nurse of becoming
Tithēnē is a nurse.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Nutrition
Trophē means food; nourishment.
Lysis · Stobaeus, Volume I+1 book
Nutrition, growth and the principal agent
A principal cause or agent determines the work as this organized work; an instrument supplies a subordinate power used in its production.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume 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