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