philosopher

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English philosophre, also philosopher and filosofre,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Anglo-Norman filosofre, also philosophre,^[5][6][7] a variant of Old French philosophe,^[5][6][8][9] from Latin philosophus,^[3][9][10] from Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος (philósophos, “lover of wisdom”),^[3][9][10] from φίλος (phílos, “loving”) and σοφός (sophós, “wise”).^[3][8][6] The OED instead takes it as probably the French word with the English suffix -er, and notes that the Anglo-Norman form philosophre is found only once, in an early 14th-century text, probably as a scribal error;^[4] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster likewise see an agent-noun ending added to the French word,^[3][11] and Weekley an inserted -r- as in barrister.^[7] It replaced Old English philosoph, used in the Old English Orosius, from the same Latin word.^[3][12][13] According to Klein, Pythagoras was the first to call himself a lover of wisdom rather than a wise man, because the latter seemed immodest.^[10][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

A lover of wisdom, a scholar or learned man: about 1316, in the Short Metrical Chronicle.^[4][2] Etymonline dates it to the early 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English a philosophre could be any scholar or wise man, a natural scientist, a moralist, or an alchemist, magician or diviner.^[2][3][7] The alchemist's philosophers' stone, a substance thought to turn base metals into gold, is from the late 14th century, after the Medieval Latin lapis philosophorum.^[3][2][7] From about 1390 the Philosopher meant an authority, usually Aristotle.^[4][2] Johnson (1755) defined a philosopher as "a man deep in knowledge, either moral or natural".^[14] The sense of a person who meets trouble calmly, by reason, is recorded from 1600, in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing,^[4] and the OED notes that French philosophe had no such sense until the early 20th century.^[4] Weekley connects this sense with the Stoic philosophers.^[7] In the Roman Catholic Church a Philosopher is a Jesuit in the first stage of scholastic training (1711).^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1316 – a lover of wisdom, a learned man.^[4][2]
• late 14th century – philosophers' stone.^[3]
• c. 1390 – the Philosopher, an authority, especially Aristotle.^[4]
• c. 1484 – the philosophers' stone itself (obsolete).^[4]
• 1600 – a person who takes things calmly and reasonably.^[4]
• 1711 – Roman Catholic Church, a Jesuit in the first stage of training.^[4]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A person who studies, teaches or is learned in philosophy, especially as an academic discipline: the Greek philosopher Aristotle.
2. A person who lives by reason, or meets difficulties calmly and stoically.
3. A thinker who lays down the ideas of a movement: the chief philosopher of the reform party.
4. (historical) An alchemist or student of occult science.
5. (Roman Catholic Church) A Jesuit in the first stage of scholastic training.

Word family

• philosophership
• philosopher king
• philosopher's stone

Related words

• philosophaster
• philosophe
• philosophical
• philosophy
• philosophize
• sophist
• philo-

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
13. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.