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Origin and history of Logos

Logos(n.)

1580s, "the divine Word, second person of the Christian Trinity," from Greek logos "word, speech, statement, discourse," also "a computation, account," also "reason, judgment, understanding," from PIE *log-o-, suffixed form of root *leg- (1) "to collect, gather," with derivatives meaning "to speak," on notion of "to pick out words." The Greek word was used by Neo-Platonists in metaphysical and theological senses involving notions of both "reason" and "word" and subsequently picked up by New Testament writers.

Entries linking to Logos

"corresponding (to some other) in particulars," 1640s, from Latin analogus, from Greek analogos "proportionate, according to due proportion," from ana "throughout; according to" (see ana-) + logos "ratio, proportion," a specialized use (see Logos). Used with to or with.

A term is analogous whose single signification applies with equal propriety to more than one object: as, the leg of the table, the leg of the animal. [William Flemming, "The Vocabulary of Philosophy," 1858]

1826, "an analogous thing," from French analogue (adj. and n.), from Latin analogus (adj.), from Greek analogos "proportionate, according to due proportion," from ana "throughout; according to" (see ana-) + logos "ratio, proportion," a specialized use (see Logos).

The word was used in English in Greek form (analogon) in 1810. The meaning "word corresponding with another" is from 1837. The computing sense, in reference to operating with numbers represented by some measurable quantity (as a slide-rule does; opposed to digital) is recorded from 1946.

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