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 P
181–216 of 264
Presentiment
Pressentiment is an apprehension before clear knowledge, not necessarily a prediction of a concrete event.
The Green Notebook
Preservation
Preservation is the sustaining of something already given or made.
Centuries of Meditations · Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Preservation and salvation
Sōtēria is preservation or salvation, with the object and danger determining its force.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Preserver and Saviour
Khunrath distinguishes Servator, Preserver, from Salvator, Saviour.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Pretence and imposture
Prospoieisthai means pretend, profess or lay claim to something.
Charmides · Lysis
Preternatural
Preternatural means outside or beyond nature’s proper course.
Centuries of Meditations
Pretext and occasion
Prophasis can be an alleged reason, occasion, or pretext.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Prevent
To prevent often means to go before, anticipate, or provide in advance.
Centuries of Meditations
Pride
These expressions describe elevated self-estimation, pride, boasting and high-mindedness.
Alcibiades I · Lysis+3 books
Priesthood
Prêtre names a person in religious office; sacerdoce can name the condition of life that makes certain kinds of intellectual and spiritual work possible.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Prime mover
In “Primum mobile,” primum means first and mobile denotes something capable of motion.
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Primordial day
Bradyporein means to travel slowly.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Principle
Archē can be a beginning or an explanatory principle.
Stobaeus, Volume I · The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II+3 books
Principles and things proceeding from principles
Principles are beginnings from which something is constituted; things principiated are products proceeding from those beginnings.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Prison
Desmōtērion is a prison, a place where someone is held in bonds.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Prison and homeland
Carcer is a prison; claustra enclosing barriers; vincula bonds; compedes fetters.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Private person and amateur
Idiōtēs is a private person as opposed to a ruler or civic body; idiōtikōs can describe an amateur or untrained condition.
Alcibiades I
Privation
Sterēsis is privation or lack.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Probity
Probité names moral rectitude in lived conduct, distinguished from the more elevated rhetorical force of vertu.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Procession
Proodos is a going forward or coming forth.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Processions and rites
Pompai are ceremonial processions; hiera can designate sacred things, sanctuaries or rites according to context.
Alcibiades II
Proclus, Syrianus and extending matter
The active extendit and passive extenditur distinguish what extends from what receives extension.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Prodicus
Prodikou is the genitive of Prodicus, invoked as someone who distinguishes between names or expressions: peri onomatōn diairountos.
Charmides
Product and object of knowledge
An ergon can be a work, result or function.
Charmides
Production, work, and action
Πράττειν ranges from acting or doing to conducting affairs; πρᾶξις names a doing or action.
Alcibiades I
Productive and designing power
Effectrix is productive or bringing about; machinatrix is capable of devising or designing.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Profession, vows, and the ceremonial threshold
Profession is the act of entering a vowed religious state; it is not professional employment in the modern restricted sense.
René
Profit
Lysitelein means to pay, be worthwhile or be advantageous; the edition’s “profit” need not mean a monetary return.
Alcibiades II · Hipparchus+1 book
Prognostication
PROGNOSTICON labels a prediction in the p. 183 margin.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Prognostics
“Prognosticks” are “signs of things to come”: indications of a condition’s expected course and outcome.
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Progress, Freedom, and Fate
Progrès divides into an automatic collective promise and an effort of individual moral change.
Intimate Journals
Progress, retention, and loss
Epididonai can mean to give further, increase or advance; of these companions it means “make progress”.
Theages
Progression
Propodismos is forward progression.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Projected books
The treatise repeatedly points beyond its present boundaries.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Projection
Projection is the application of the prepared metallic medicine upon lower metals.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Prometheus Paradise and the cost of knowledge
Prometheus is the explicitly named mythic bringer of fire, invoked as a model for carrying higher knowledge to others.
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