Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Platonic
/pləˈtɒnɪk/adjective
Belonging to Plato's philosophy, or describing affection without sexual desire.
The Greek roots
Πλάτων
Plátōn
Plato, Athenian philosopher
Literally: “of Plato”
Follow a root:Πλάτων3 words
The story of the word
Πλάτων may itself be a nickname from πλατύς, broad, for the shoulders of a wrestler or the width of a forehead; Diogenes Laertius reports that the given name was Aristocles, but the story is late and widely doubted. The narrow modern sense comes from Marsilio Ficino's amor platonicus in the fifteenth century, love directed at a soul rather than a body. English had Platonic love by the 1630s, pointing back to a dialogue, the Symposium, that is mostly about desire.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
PlatoSocraticNeoplatonismplateau
In a sentence
They insisted the friendship was platonic, which nobody at the table believed.