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
253–288 of 309
Striking and beating
Typtō means strike, beat; used of animals and of punishment.
Lysis
String
Chordē means string of the lyre.
Lysis · Stobaeus, Volume I
Stripping the soul
Apodynai is to strip or undress.
Charmides
Striving and enjoyment
Nixus is effort or striving; niti presses toward an outcome; contendere makes for it.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Study and learning
Étude is deliberate study; apprendre can mean learning or teaching in its grammatical context.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations+2 books
Stupid
Stupid in this passage means unperceiving, insensible, or lacking the activity of awareness.
Centuries of Meditations
Style
Style is the distinctive manner in which writing takes form and acts upon a reader; its effects cannot always be judged from isolated sentences.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Subject to authority
Hypēkoos means subject to, under another’s authority.
Lysis
Subjects of learning
Mathēma is something learned, a subject or item of learning; mathēmata is its plural.
The Lovers · Theages
Sublimation
Sublimation is named among the preparations by which metals are brought into subtle forms.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Sublime
Sublime marks elevation or exceptional greatness of mind, thought or soul; the cause of that elevation is not always the same.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · The Green Notebook+1 book
Sublunary evils
Kaka are evils or bad things; katharōteros is purer.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Subsistence
Hypostasis can describe the establishment or continuing reality of something.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Centuries of Meditations
Substance
Substance ranges from bodily material and a proposed physical constituent to the content of speech.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Subterranean fire
B 52 says that many fires burn beneath the ground.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Subtlety
Mental subtlety may penetrate a difficult truth, discriminate fine qualities or conceal the absence of a defensible argument.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Subtraction and removal
Aphairesis is taking away.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Sudden insight, habituation, and the hare
Claritas is the realized lucidity of intellect; fervor is the stable heat of appetite ignited by it.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II
Suffering
Douleur crosses the boundary between bodily pain and inward sorrow; its value depends on what the experience does to the soul.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · The Green Notebook
Sufficiency
Hikanotēs means sufficiency; adequacy.
Lysis · Centuries of Meditations
Suicidal Intention and the Duty to Live
Suicide appears by name in the authorial Defence; René’s confession uses expressions such as leaving life and attempting his own days.
René
Suitable receptivity
Epitēdeiotēs is fitness or aptitude for something.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Sulphur of Steel
Sulphur of steel appears within the opponents’ account of a fiery heavenly power leaving an earthy seed upon water.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Sulphur of the Philosophers
Philosophical Sulphur is the complementary sulphureous principle in the twofold Mercury and a member of the triadic constitution.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Summer
Summer is less a continuous narrative season here than a set of anticipated forms, full warmth, and bright days.
The Green Notebook
Sun
Hēlios names the sun, but agreement on that visible object leaves its substance, shape, size, and motion open to competing explanations.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Centuries of Meditations+3 books
Sun and night
The sun concentrates light, while night supplies both the conditions of rest and an image of obscurity.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II
Sun-Maid
Hēliopē is a feminine solar name.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Sun, Mercury and moon
Sol is the sun, Mercurius here the celestial Mercury, and luna the moon.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Sunset of life
Gēras hēmeras is the old age of the day; dysmas biou is the sunset or setting of life.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Supernaturalism
Surnaturalisme is one of the two fundamental literary qualities named in Fusées XVII, paired with irony.
Intimate Journals
Superstition
Superstition is a religious danger that Joubert sometimes proposes to manage through religion itself.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations
Supplements, corruption, and gaps
A supplement is wording added by an editor to repair or complete the surviving text; corruption is a judgement that transmitted wording is damaged or unacceptable.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Supplication
Deēsis is a request or supplication, especially a prayer addressed to a higher power in the selected passage.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Support, inherence and dependence
Inhaerere adheres or inheres.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Suppression and massacre
Suppression presents force as the putting down of a disturbance.
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