φυσικός

Forms

φῠσῐκός (phusikós) m (feminine φῠσῐκή, neuter φῠσῐκόν); first/second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek φύσις (phúsis, “nature”) + -ικός (-ikós), an adjective of the noun for “nature”.^[1][2][3] The noun itself comes from φύω (phúō, “to grow, bring forth”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

LSJ notes that the word occurs only once in Xenophon and not at all in Plato.^[5] In Xenophon's Memorabilia Socrates is asked whether courage can be taught or is “natural”, inborn.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Aristotle made it a common word: “natural” as opposed to taught or conventional (natural justice against legal justice), “physical”, and “concerned with nature”, as in the phrase for natural science.^[5][2] He calls the inquirers into nature, above all the Presocratic philosophers, simply hoi phusikoí, and the name τὰ φυσικά (tà phusiká) was given to his treatises on nature.^[5][2] The Stoics, from Zeno on, divided philosophy into the physical, the ethical and the logical parts.^[5]

Hellenistic prose used it of a simple, unaffected style (Dionysius of Halicarnassus) and of natural fortifications (Polybius).^[5][2] In the New Testament, Paul sets the “natural” use of the body against what is contrary to nature, and Second Peter calls certain men creatures of instinct, born to be caught.^[4][5] Late Greek used it for what works by the hidden laws of nature, that is, magic: Alexander of Tralles calls amulets “natural remedies”.^[5]

Latin borrowed it as physicus.^[7] English physics goes back through Latin to τὰ φυσικά, the title of Aristotle's work.^[8] The word passed into Coptic, first recorded about 350.^[9] Modern Greek φυσικός (fysikós) is learned and has taken senses from French naturel and English natural; the noun for a physicist follows French physicien, and φυσική (fysikí) “physics” follows French physique.^[10]

Timeline

• 5th–4th century BC – Xenophon asks whether courage is taught or natural, the word's one use in his works.^[5][11]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of natural science, natural justice and the natural philosophers, and his treatises on nature are called τὰ φυσικά (tà phusiká).^[5][2][11]
• 2nd century BC – Polybius uses its adverb of things done simply and naturally.^[5][11]
• 1st century BC – Dionysius of Halicarnassus calls a plain style natural, as opposed to artful.^[5][11]
• 1st century AD – In the Epistle to the Romans, Paul speaks of “natural” use as against use contrary to nature.^[4][5]
• 4th century AD – The Coptic borrowing ⲫⲩⲥⲓⲕⲟⲥ (physikos) is first recorded, about 350.^[9]
• 6th century AD – Alexander of Tralles calls amulets and spells “natural remedies”.^[5][11]
• Modern Greek – The learned φυσικός (fysikós) means “natural” and, as a noun, “physicist”.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Natural, innate, inborn, as opposed to taught.^[5][2]
2. Occurring by nature, natural, as opposed to man-made or conventional: natural justice, natural defences.^[5][2]
3. Of style: natural, simple, unaffected.^[5]
4. Belonging to growth or to the nature of a plant; characteristic.^[5]
5. Belonging to the order of nature, physical; of a science, dealing with nature.^[5][2]
6. (masculine as a noun) A natural philosopher, an inquirer into nature, especially one of the Presocratics.^[5][2]
7. (feminine as a noun) Natural science, physics.^[2][5] (neuter plural) Aristotle's Physics.^[2][5]
8. (Stoicism, neuter as a noun) The physical part of philosophy, beside the ethical and the logical.^[5]
9. (New Testament) In keeping with the order of nature; of animals, mere creatures of instinct.^[4]
10. (late) Working by the hidden laws of nature, magical: of amulets and spells.^[5]
11. (late) Of a son: natural, and in Thomas Magister one born outside marriage.^[5]

Word family

• φυσική (phusikḗ)

Related words

• φύσις (phúsis)
• φύω (phúō)
• φυσιολόγος (phusiológos)
• Latin physicus
• English physics

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ Debrunner, Albert (1917), Griechische Wortbildungslehre, Heidelberg: Winter; Greek tr. on the Portal for the Greek Language, https://www.greek-language.gr
4. ^ a b c d Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Πάπυρος–Larousse–Britannica, Μέγα Λεξικό της Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, Athens: Πάπυρος
7. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b Database and Dictionary of Greek Loanwords in Coptic (DDGLC), Freie Universität Berlin and Universität Leipzig
10. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b c d e Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge