philosopher

English

Alternative forms

• phylosopher (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English philosophre, from Anglo-Norman or Middle French philosophe, from Latin philosophus, from Ancient Greek φιλόσοφος (philósophos, literally “lover of wisdom”) -er.

Credited as having been coined by Pythagoras to describe himself.

Displaced native Old English ūþwita.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlɒs.ə.fə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /fəˈlɑsəfəɹ/

  • Audio (Mid-Atlantic US):

    (file)

Noun

philosopher (plural philosophers)

1. (originally) A lover of wisdom.
2. A student of philosophy.
3. A scholar or expert engaged in or contributing to philosophical inquiry.

   Hyponyms: see Thesaurus:philosopher

   • 2007, Harold Bloom, Bloom's Modern Critical Views: Stephen King:

     Their playwrights knew better. Scandal, murder, hair-rending and railing against the gods sold tickets. King is not a philosopher. He knows how to sell tickets.

4. (archaic) A person who applies the principles of philosophy to the conduct of their life, as by acting calmly and rationally in the face of inevitable change.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 17:18:

     Then certaine Philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoikes, encountred him

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], Pride and Prejudice: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:

     This is not the sort of happiness which a man would in general wish to owe to his wife; but where other powers of entertainment are wanting, the true philosopher will derive benefit from such as are given.

5. (archaic) A student, scholar, or expert in any branch of knowledge, especially those branches studied prior to being considered part of pure science.
6. (obsolete) An alchemist.
   • 1813, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales: The Canon's Yeoman's Tale:

     Then thus conclude I, since that God of heaven
     Will not that these philosophers neven
     How that a man shall come unto this stone,
     I rede as for the best to let it gon.

   • 1945, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy:

     No further progress was made in this science until the Mohammedan alchemists embarked upon their search for the philosopher's stone, the elixir of life, and a method of transmuting base metals into gold.

Derived terms

• analytic philosopher
• antiphilosopher
• biophilosopher
• ecophilosopher
• ethnophilosopher
• fire philosopher
• foolosopher
• geophilosopher
• macaroni philosopher
• metaphilosopher
• natural philosopher
• neurophilosopher
• nonphilosopher
• philosopher by fire
• philosopheress
• philosopher king
• philosopher of fire
• philosopher's game
• philosophership
• philosopher's lamp
• philosopher's stone
• philosophers' stone
• philosopher's wool
• philosophess
• philosophress
• pseudophilosopher

 

Related terms

• misosopher
• philosophaster
• philosophe
• philosophical
• philosophical method
• philosophicide
• philosophizer
• philosophy

Translations

person devoted to studying philosophy

• Afrikaans: filosoof (af)
• Albanian: filozof (sq) m, filozofe f

  Old Albanian: i dashuni i giξe tditunavet m

• Amharic: ፈላስፋ (fälasfa)
• Arabic: فَيْلَسُوف (ar) m (faylasūf)
• Aragonese: filosofo
• Armenian: փիլիսոփա (hy) (pʻilisopʻa)
• Aromanian: filuzof m, filuzoafã f, filuzofã f, filuzofe f, filusof m, filusoafã f, filusofã f, filusofe f
• Asturian: filósofu m
• Azerbaijani: filosof (az)
• Bavarian: Philosoph
• Belarusian: філо́саф m (filósaf), філёзаф m (filjózaf) (Taraškievica)
• Bengali: দার্শনিক (bn) (darśonik)
• Bulgarian: филосо́ф (bg) m (filosóf)
• Catalan: filòsof (ca) m, filòsofa (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哲學家／哲学家 (zh) (zhéxuéjiā)

• Coptic: ⲫⲓⲗⲟⲥⲟⲫⲟⲥ m (philosophos)
• Crimean Tatar: felsefeci
• Czech: filozof (cs) m, filozofka (cs) f, filosof (cs) m, filosofka f, mudrc (cs) m
• Danish: filosof c
• Dutch: filosoof (nl) m, filosofe (nl) f, wijsgeer (nl) m
• Esperanto: filozofo
• Estonian: filosoof (et)
• Faroese: heimspekingur m
• Finnish: filosofi (fi)
• French: philosophe (fr) m or f
• Galician: filósofa f, filósofo (gl) m
• Georgian: ფილოსოფოსი (ka) (pilosoposi)
• German: Philosoph (de) m, Philosophin (de) f
• Greek: φιλόσοφος (el) m or f (filósofos)

  Ancient: φιλόσοφος m or f (philósophos)

• Haitian Creole: filozòf
• Hebrew: פִילוֹסוֹף (he) m (filosof), הוֹגֵה דֵּעוֹת m (hogé de'ót)
• Hindi: दार्शनिक (hi) m (dārśanik)
• Hungarian: filozófus (hu)
• Icelandic: heimspekingur m
• Indonesian: filsuf (id)
• Interlingua: philosopho
• Irish: fealsamh m

  Middle Irish: fellsam m

  Old Irish: felsub m

• Italian: filosofo (it) m, filosofa (it) f
• Japanese: 哲学者 (ja) (てつが​くしゃ, tetsugakusha)
• Kashubian: filozof m, filozofka f
• Kazakh: пәлсапашы (pälsapaşy), философ (filosof)
• Khmer: ទស្សនវិទូ (km) (tŭəhsaʼnaʼ vituu), ចិន្តបណ្ឌិត (centaʼbɑndɨt)
• Korean: 철학자(哲學者) (ko) (cheolhakja)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: fîlozof (ku)

• Kyrgyz: философ (ky) (filosof)
• Lao: ນັກປາດ (nak pāt)
• Latin: philosophus (la) m
• Latvian: filozofs m
• Lithuanian: filosofas m
• Luxembourgish: Philosoph
• Macedonian: филозо́ф f (filozóf)
• Malay: ahli falsafah (ms), ahli fikir, filsuf (ms)
• Maltese: filosfu m, filosfa f
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: философич (filosofič)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: filosof (no) m

  Nynorsk: filosof m

• Occitan: filosòf (oc) m, filosòfa (oc) f
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: философъ m (filosofŭ)

• Old English: ūþwita m
• Pashto: فيلسوف (ps) m (faylasūf)
• Persian: فیلسوف (fa) (filsuf)
• Polish: filozof (pl) m, filozofka (pl) f, mędrzec (pl) m
• Portuguese: filósofo (pt) m, filósofa (pt) f
• Quechua: yachay wayllukuq
• Romanian: filozof (ro) m, filozoafă (ro) f
• Russian: фило́соф (ru) m (filósof)
• Scottish Gaelic: feallsanach m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: фило̀зоф m, фило̀зофкиња f

  Roman: filòzof (sh) m, filòzofkinja (sh) f

• Slovak: filozof (sk) m, filozofka (sk) f
• Slovene: filozof (sl) m, filozofinja f
• Spanish: filósofo (es) m, filósofa f
• Swahili: mwanafalsafa
• Swedish: filosof (sv) c
• Tagalog: batnayanon, pilosopo
• Tajik: файласуф (faylasuf), хирадварз (xiradvarz), философ (filosof)
• Tatar: фәлсәфәче (fälsäfäçe), философ (filosof)
• Thai: นักปราชญ์ (th) (nák-bpràat), นักปรัชญา (nák-bpràt-yaa)
• Tocharian B: pälskauca
• Turkish: felsefeci (tr), filozof (tr)
• Turkmen: filosof
• Ukrainian: філо́соф m (filósof)
• Upper Sorbian: filozofka f, filozof m
• Urdu: فَلْسَفی m (falsafī)
• Uyghur: پەيلاسوپ (peylasop)
• Uzbek: faylasuf (uz), filosof (uz)
• Vietnamese: nhà triết học, triết gia (vi), triết nhân (vi)
• Volapük: (♂♀) filosopan (vo), (♂) hifilosopan, (♀) jifilosopan
• Walloon: filozofe (wa) m
• West Frisian: filosoof c, wiisgear c
• Yiddish: פֿילאָסאָףֿ m (filosof)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fe/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

philosopher

1. to philosophize

Conjugation

Conjugation of philosopher (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	philosopher
	compound	avoir past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	philosophant /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fɑ̃/
	compound	ayant past participle
past participle		philosophé /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	philosophe /fi.lɔ.zɔf/	philosophes /fi.lɔ.zɔf/	philosophe /fi.lɔ.zɔf/	philosophons /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fɔ̃/	philosophez /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fe/	philosophent /fi.lɔ.zɔf/
	imperfect	philosophais /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fɛ/	philosophais /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fɛ/	philosophait /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fɛ/	philosophions /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fjɔ̃/	philosophiez /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fje/	philosophaient /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fɛ/
	past historic2	philosophai /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fe/	philosophas /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fa/	philosopha /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fa/	philosophâmes /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fam/	philosophâtes /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fat/	philosophèrent /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fɛʁ/
	future	philosopherai /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fʁe/	philosopheras /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fʁa/	philosophera /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fʁa/	philosopherons /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fʁɔ̃/	philosopherez /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fʁe/	philosopheront /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fʁɔ̃/
	conditional	philosopherais /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fʁɛ/	philosopherais /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fʁɛ/	philosopherait /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fʁɛ/	philosopherions /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fə.ʁjɔ̃/	philosopheriez /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fə.ʁje/	philosopheraient /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	philosophe /fi.lɔ.zɔf/	philosophes /fi.lɔ.zɔf/	philosophe /fi.lɔ.zɔf/	philosophions /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fjɔ̃/	philosophiez /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fje/	philosophent /fi.lɔ.zɔf/
	imperfect2	philosophasse /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fas/	philosophasses /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fas/	philosophât /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fa/	philosophassions /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fa.sjɔ̃/	philosophassiez /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fa.sje/	philosophassent /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	philosophe /fi.lɔ.zɔf/	—	philosophons /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fɔ̃/	philosophez /fi.lɔ.zɔ.fe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir past participle	simple imperative of avoir past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Further reading

• “philosopher”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Verb

philosopher

1. first-person singular present active subjunctive of philosophor