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 O
1–36 of 71
Oaristēs, enneōros, and the limits of an interpretation
Oaristēs means an intimate associate or familiar friend, rendered “confidant”; oaroi are familiar converse or confidences.
Minos
Oath
Horkos is an oath, a solemn pledge.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Oath and conscience
The oath passage concerns freely undertaken pledges and duties to a preceptor under ancient philosophical usage.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Oath and divine invocations
Omōmoka is the perfect “I have sworn,” marking a continuing obligation from an oath.
Charmides
Obedience
Obedience connects the will to a command or recognized rule, but its direction matters: one may obey oneself, another person, or what is better than oneself.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations+1 book
Object
An object is what thought, sight, desire, or another power is directed toward.
Centuries of Meditations
Object and subject
Objet and sujet have several contexts that do not map neatly onto a modern opposition between knowing subject and external object.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Object of opinion
Doxaston names what belongs to opinion as its object.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Object of thought
Noēma can name a thought or what is thought.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Objection and solution
Objection and solution are recognizable stages in the book's disputation.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Obligation
Obligation is what binds one to a response or duty.
Centuries of Meditations
Oblique
Loxos describes an oblique relation to another direction or circle.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Oblong
Heteromēkēs means having unequal lengths.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Obnubilate
Obnubilate means to cloud, darken or obscure.
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Obscenity, Abbreviation, and the Borrowed Sonnet
Obscenity works through bodily vocabulary, aggressive social distinction, and sudden collisions with spiritual language.
Intimate Journals
Obscurity
Asapheia is lack of clarity or obscurity.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Observation
Observation attends to what natural workings actually bring forth and teach.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Obsession and possession
“Obsession” here names demonic harassment or assault, especially pressure from outside; “possession” names a spirit’s occupation or control of a person.
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Ocean
Ōkeanos can name Ocean as a divine figure or the great encompassing body of water.
Stobaeus, Volume I · The Green Notebook
Octahedron
Oktāedron names a solid with eight faces.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Ocular demonstration
Ocular demonstration is showing something in the work or to the eye.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Odd and even
Perittos is odd and artios even in the numerical contexts here.
Epinomis · Stobaeus, Volume I
Odour
Osmē means odour; osmōdes describes what has a smell, and its superlative here means most fragrant or most odorous.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Oedipus and his sons
Oedipus is introduced through the reported prayer that his sons should divide their paternal inheritance with bronze, meaning by the sword.
Alcibiades II
Oenopides
Oinopidēs is the Greek personal name conventionally written Oenopides in English.
The Lovers
Oil-flask and strigil
Lēkythos is an oil-flask; stlengis a strigil, the scraper associated with cleaning the body after exercise.
Charmides
Old age offices and educated authority
Presbytēs is an old man, distinct in grammatical form from the comparative presbyteros, “older,” used in the argument for soul's priority.
Epinomis
Oldest laws and their persistence
Palaios means old or ancient; palaiotatos, oldest.
Minos
Olfactory lightness
Leptos means fine or thin; kouphos means light.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Olives as eggs
The verb ὠιοτοκεῖ describes egg-bearing or egg-laying, here assigned to tall trees.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Olympiad
Olympiad is the festival-cycle unit used in the chronological notices; ēkmaze and Latin floruit indicate a period of prominence or flourishing, not a birth date.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Omnia
Omnia, all things, is a philosophical name for universal Magnesia.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Omnipotence
Omnipotence is unlimited divine power.
Centuries of Meditations
Omnipresence
Omnipresence is God’s presence everywhere.
Centuries of Meditations · Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Omniscience
“Omniscience” is a modern convenient headword for the hypothetical person who knows all future, past and present things and is ignorant of nothing (174a).
Charmides
Omnividence and the limits of godlike sight
Omnividence means all-seeing; omniscience means all-knowing.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
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