Philosophers

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /fəˈlɑsəfɚz/

Definitions

1. Individuals who systematically investigate ideas related to existence, knowledge, ethics, and human experience
2. Persons who explore fundamental questions about reality, knowledge, and moral principles
3. Thinkers who examine essential problems concerning existence, understanding, and ethics

Etymology: The plural "philosophers" simply adds the English plural ending to "philosopher," so the real story sits in the singular. Its ancestor was the Ancient Greek "philósophos," literally "lover of wisdom," built from "philos" (loving, friendly) and "sophía" (wisdom). Tradition credits the mathematician Pythagoras with coining the term to describe himself, reportedly preferring it to the grander claim of being "wise" himself. Scholars have debated that story, and it is attributed to Roman-era sources such as Cicero, so treat it as an ancient tradition rather than a firmly documented fact. The word passed into Latin as "philosophus," then reached English through Anglo-Norman or Middle French "philosophe," arriving in Middle English as "philosophre." Before it settled in, English already had a native term for such a person, "ūþwita" (roughly "wise man of the outer lands" in its root sense, a compound of "ūt" and "wita"), which the Latin-derived word eventually displaced.

Synonyms: thinkers, scholars, intellectuals, theorists, sages