Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Pythagorean
/pɪˌθæɡəˈriːən/adjective
Relating to Pythagoras, his theorem, or the school that held number to be the substance of things.
The Greek roots
Πυθώ
Pythṓ
Delphi
ἀγορεύω
agoreúō
to proclaim, speak
Literally: “proclaimed by the Delphic oracle”
The story of the word
Ancient biographers explained the name by an oracle at Delphi announcing his birth, though the story may have been reverse-engineered from the name itself. The Pythagoreans were a religious brotherhood as much as a school, with years of enforced silence for novices and a famous prohibition on beans that nobody has satisfactorily explained. The theorem was in use by Babylonian scribes more than a thousand years before he was born; what the school added was the demand for proof.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
pythonagoracategoryallegory
In a sentence
He tuned the strings by Pythagorean ratios and the thirds came out sour.