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 collectionsEntries
2,917–2,952 of 2,960
Witchcraft
Witchcraft names a supposed human traffic with supernatural powers, especially the power to harm, deceive, alter affections, or cause and cure disease.
The Anatomy of Melancholy
Witness
Martys is a witness; the accusative singular μάρτυρα and genitive plural μαρτύρων first identify people who could attest what has been said.
Theages · Centuries of Meditations
Witnesses and reception
A witness is the author or document through which an Empedoclean passage reaches us.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Wives and household
A household is a domestic group and the space of its daily relations.
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
Womb
Mētra is the womb, the place of gestation in the selected physiological report.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Women
Femme may designate an individual woman or a generalized social category.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · René+2 books
Wonder
Wonder is both astonishment and the remarkable thing that provokes it.
Centuries of Meditations · Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Wonder and strangeness
Wonder is the response to something puzzling or unexpected; atopos and its forms describe strangeness or being out of the ordinary.
Alcibiades I
Wonder initiation and contemplation
Thaumazein is to wonder at or admire; erōs desire or love; katamanthanein to learn thoroughly or observe with understanding.
Epinomis
Woods
Bois can mean woodland or wood as material; forêt stresses an extensive forest.
The Green Notebook
Wool-working and weaving
Ταλασιουργία is wool-working, the preparation and working of wool; ὑφαντική is weaving.
Alcibiades I · Lysis
Word
Mot names a verbal unit, but Joubert also imagines words as bodies possessing movement, texture and affective force.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations+1 book
Wording and expression
Lexis can mean wording or verbal expression.
Stobaeus, Volume I
World
Kosmos connects the world with order and adornment.
Stobaeus, Volume I · Centuries of Meditations+2 books
World and universe
Monde may mean the world, a sphere of activity, or society; univers usually extends attention to the cosmic whole.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations+1 book
World-soul
World-soul is a conventional name for the conception of the cosmos as a living whole informed by soul.
Centuries of Meditations · Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum+1 book
Worship
Culte names religious worship and its observances, including both outward manifestation and inward orientation.
The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II · Centuries of Meditations+1 book
Worth and desert
Axios assesses worth or desert and often takes a genitive specifying what is merited: praise, a name, or value in some respect.
Charmides · Hipparchus+2 books
Worth possessing
Ἄξιος means worth or worthy of something; κεκτῆσθαι is the perfect infinitive of acquiring, here “to possess.”
Hipparchus
Wrath
Kotos is wrath or enduring resentment.
Empedocles’ Complete Fragments, Volume I
Writing
Graphō means write; set down letters in an order one understands.
Lysis · The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II+1 book
Written composition
Syngramma means written composition.
Lysis
Wrongdoing
Adikeō means do wrong; wrong or injure someone.
Lysis
Xenocrates and the riddle
Aenigma is a riddle or enigmatic formulation.
Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume I
Xenophanes
Xenophanous names Xenophanes as the alternative model in Hermippus’ account; epopoiia here means epic composition or manner.
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Xerxes
Xerxes is both a benchmark of imperial renown and a link in the Persian royal family used in the comparison.
Alcibiades I
Year
Eniautos is a year, understood as a returning cycle as well as a measure of duration.
Stobaeus, Volume I
Yellow
Ōchron is an adjective for a pale, yellowish, or ochre appearance; this edition renders it “yellow.”
Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Youths, lads, and the beloved
Neos means “young”; used substantivally, it identifies a young person or, in the plural, the young.
The Lovers
Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis is the name of the figure whom the unnamed Thracian doctor calls “our king, who is a god.”
Charmides
Zasius and the stronger reason
Zasius is the jurist named in the margin for the principle that one stronger reason defeats several weaker ones.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Zeal
Zeal is fervent concern expressed in energetic pursuit.
Centuries of Meditations
Zedekiah and Micaiah
The prophetic confrontation on p. 180 imagines a Zedekiah striking Micaiah and demanding whether the Spirit of Truth has left him to speak through the other.
Heinrich Khunrath’s Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum
Zeno
A named teacher whose association with two paying pupils is offered by Socrates as a contrast with Pericles’ unproved educational success.
Alcibiades I · Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II
Zeus
Zeus is invoked in oaths and appeals and named as the ultimate source of prestigious genealogies.
Alcibiades I · Alcibiades II+2 books
Zeus Hera and the place left to traditional gods
Zeus and Hera are named gods; the local forms are Δία and Ἥραν.
Epinomis
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