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 S
109–144 of 309
Shoots
Blastoi are shoots or sprouts.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Shore and window
A shore is an edge between land and sea.
René
Sicilian landscape
Triquetris describes the island’s three-cornered shores.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Sicilian Muse
Plato’s plural Muses are figurative voices of philosophical traditions.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Sicily, Sannion, and the current expedition
Strateia is military service or a campaign; stratia is an army or military force.
Theages
Sight
Ὄψις names sight, the activity or capacity of seeing; in an appropriate context it can also name the eye or its visible region.
Alcibiades I · Stobaeus, Volume I+2 books
Sight and colour
Opsis names sight or a visual capacity; horan is to see.
Charmides · Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Sign
Sēmainō means indicate; signify or point out.
Lysis · Stobaeus, Volume I+1 book
Signature
A signature is a mark by which something about a natural thing becomes intelligible.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Signs and evidence
A sign can direct understanding without being sufficient proof by itself.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Silence
Silence may be an acoustic interval, a condition of receptive attention, or a deliberate abstention from writing.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations+2 books
Silence and following
Socrates’ silence means not addressing Alcibiades, despite persistent presence and following.
Alcibiades I
Silence and postponement
Quiet can be the refraining from an action or utterance, not an absence of thought.
Alcibiades II
Silence and Utterance
Sōpē names silence, while Omphaiē evokes voice or utterance.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Silence, hope and strength
The margin running from p. 147 to p. 148 reads Isaiah's promise of strength in silence and hope symbolically as a promise of Elixir.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Silver-ness and Gold-ness
Argenteitas and Aureitas, glossed by Silberkeit and Goldigkeit, name the determinate silvern or golden character of a thing.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Simeon
Simeon supplies both the voice and the argument of the Conclusion.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Simonides fees and gifts
Σιμωνίδης is Simonides, the poet kept in Hipparchus’ company.
Hipparchus
Simple
Haplous describes what is simple rather than composite.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Simple-mindedness
Euēthēs can describe an uncomplicated or ingenuous character and, in a depreciatory setting, a simpleton.
Charmides
Simplicity
Simplicité can describe plain terminology, economy of thought or a work stripped of superfluity.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations+1 book
Simplicity of human and numerical species
Species can name a determinate nature as well as the form representing it in mind.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II
Simplicius
Simplicius is a later commentator whose testimony in this volume sometimes preserves or discusses poetic material within a philosophical exposition.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Sin
Sin is moral and religious wrongdoing, not simply pain, limitation, or an unpleasant experience.
Centuries of Meditations · René
Sincerity and frankness
Sincérité concerns honesty of intention without guaranteeing correct judgment; franchise can be a natural disposition distinct from the virtue of sustained veracity.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Sinew
Neuron can refer to sinew or related cord-like bodily tissue.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Singing
Aidō means sing; perform or circulate praise in song.
Lysis
Sismondi
The historian read in March 1833, whose account Guérin criticizes for its treatment of the papacy’s part in Italian liberty.
The Green Notebook
Skill
Skill is practical or informed competence.
Centuries of Meditations
Skin
The source’s surface vocabulary includes χρωτὸς, rendered “flesh” in B76, and χροῒ, rendered “human flesh” in the clepsydra passage.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Sky and stars
Ciel may be the visible sky or heavens, while astres names celestial bodies rather than exclusively the modern category of stars.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · The Green Notebook
Slave’s hair
The image attributes slave-like hair to the souls of uncultured politicians.
Alcibiades I
Sleep
Hypnos denotes sleep.
Stobaeus, Volume I · The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II+2 books
Sleep, hunger, thinness, and worries
Katheudein means to sleep; agrypnos means sleepless or wakeful; asitos means unfed or without food.
The Lovers
Sluggishness
Nōthros means sluggish or slow; epiponos means laborious or requiring effort.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Small and great
Σμικρός means small and μέγας great or large.
Hipparchus
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