Etymologically
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philosopher

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /fɪˈlɒs.ə.fə(ɹ)/[1]
  • US: /fəˈlɑsəfɚ/[1]

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

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.