φορά + ῥόος + νόησις
Word
Validation
No
Word-form
φρόνησις
Word-lemma
Transliteration (Word)
phronēsis
English translation (word)
wisdom
Transliteration (Etymon)
phorā + rhoos + noēsis
English translation (etymon)
carrying + stream + perception
Century
4 BC
Source
idem
Ref.
Cratylus 411d
Ed.
J. Burnet, Platonis opera, vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900 (repr. 1967)
Translation (En)
Parallels
There is no parallel, except probably a quotation by Plotinus, who alludes to the etymology by ὄνησις, dropping the first two etymons: Ἡ δὲ φρόνησις νόησις ἐν ἀποστροφῇ τῶν κάτω, πρὸς δὲ τὰ ἄνω τὴν ψυχὴν ἄγουσα (Ennead 1.6.6)
Modern etymology
Derivative of φρονέω
Persistence in Modern Greek
MG still has φρόνηση as a learned word
Entry By
Le Feuvre
Comment
Compositional etymology, in which Plato observes the acrophonic principle for the first two words (φ-ορά, ῥ-όος), and no longer does for the third etymon (νόησις), for which he probably implicitly assumes a metathesis νόησις > -ονησις. As often in Plato, there are more than two members in the assumed compound. The first two are coordinated, and the general structure is Genitive-Noun. Wisdom is conceived of as the abstract perception of motion.