The etymology relates οὐρανός to ὁράω, as the older etymology by Plato (see οὐρανός / ὁράω + ἄνω) but the second element of the compound is identifies as νὀος "mind". In Plato's etymology, the segmentation is οὐρ-ανός (ἄνω), in this one it is οὐρα-νός (νὀος). The notion of heaven as the realm of intellectual or spiritual realities belongs to the Platonic tradition and to the Christian tradition, so that it is difficult to say which this etymology refers to. From the formal point of view, two manipulations are required, adjunction of [u] and psilosis. The "adjunction of [u]" betrays the fact that Greek scholars were reasoning with letters (graphemes), not sounds, since what is spelled ου is not a diphthong resulting from a sequence [o] + [u] but a vowel which in Byzantine times was pronounced [u]: phonetically speaking, one does not add a [u], but graphically there is an added [u]. This added [u] is then credited with the power of removing a rough breathing, and the claim is substantiated through allegedly similar examples: ὅρος is the Attic form, and οὖρος the Ionic form of "mountain", displaying regularly Ionic psilosis, which has nothing to do with the "added" [u] (result of a compensatory lengthening); similarly ἕαδε is the Attic for of the aorist of ἁνδάνω and εὔαδε is the Aeolic form, and Aeolic (Lesbian in that case) is also a psilotic dialect; in both cases the paired forms belong to two different dialects. The third pair links not two dialectal variants but two different words, ἕκηλος "willing" and εὔκηλος "calm, quiet", which do not belong together. However, in the three pairs both forms exist, whereas in the case of οὐρανός the form *ὀρανός is not attested anywhere.

The Gudianum adds another notice in which the etymology seems to combine the three elements (παρὰ τὸ ἄνω ὁρᾶσθαι τὸν νοῦν)