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Definition of platonic - 5 dictionary results

Pla⋅ton⋅ic

  [pluh-ton-ik, pley-]
Use platonic in a Sentence
–adjective
1. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Plato or his doctrines: the Platonic philosophy of ideal forms.
2. pertaining to, involving, or characterized by Platonic love as a striving toward love of spiritual or ideal beauty.
3. (usually lowercase) purely spiritual; free from sensual desire, esp. in a relationship between two persons of the opposite sex.
4. (usually lowercase) feeling or professing platonic love: He insisted that he was completely platonic in his admiration.
Origin:
1525–35; < L Platōnicus < Gk Platōnikós, equiv. to Platōn-, s. of Plátōn Plato + -ikos, -ic

Related forms:
Pla⋅ton⋅i⋅cal⋅ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Pla·ton·ic   (plə-tŏn'ĭk, plā-)   
adj.  
  1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of Plato or his philosophy: Platonic dialogues; Platonic ontology.
  2. often platonic Transcending physical desire and tending toward the purely spiritual or ideal: platonic love.
  3. often platonic Speculative or theoretical.

[After Plato.]
Pla·ton'i·cal·ly adv.
Word History: Plato did not invent the term or the concept that bears his name, but he did see sexual desire as the germ for higher loves. Marsilio Ficino, a Renaissance follower of Plato, used the terms amor socraticus and amor platonicus interchangeably for a love between two humans that was preparatory for the love of God. From Ficino's usage, Platonic (already present in English as an adjective to describe what related to Plato and first recorded in 1533) came to be used for a spiritual love between persons of opposite sexes. In our own century Platonic has been used of relationships between members of the same sex. Though the concept is an elevated one, the term has perhaps more often been applied in ways that led Samuel Richardson to have one of his characters in Pamela say, "I am convinced, and always was, that Platonic love is Platonic nonsense."
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Platonic

Pla*ton"ic\, Platonical \Pla*ton"ic*al\, a. [L. Platonicus, Gr. ?: cf. F. platonique.]

1. Of or pertaining to Plato, or his philosophy, school, or opinions.

2. Pure, passionless; nonsexual; philosophical.

Platonic bodies, the five regular geometrical solids; namely, the tetrahedron, hexahedron or cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron.

Platonic love, a pure, spiritual affection, subsisting between persons of opposite sex, unmixed with carnal desires, and regarding the mind only and its excellences; -- a species of love for which Plato was a warm advocate.

Platonic year (Astron.), a period of time determined by the revolution of the equinoxes, or the space of time in which the stars and constellations return to their former places in respect to the equinoxes; -- called also great year. This revolution, which is caused by the precession of the equinoxes, is accomplished in about 26,000 years. --Barlow.

Platonic

Pla*ton"ic\, n. A follower of Plato; a Platonist.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Platonic 
1533, "of or pertaining to Gk. philosopher Plato" (429 B.C.E.-c.347 B.C.E.). The name is Gk. Platon, properly "broad-shouldered" (from platys "broad;" see place (n.)). His original name was Aristocles. The meaning "love (for one of the opposite sex) free of sensual desire" (1631), which the word usually carries nowadays, is a Renaissance notion; it is based on Plato's writings in "Symposium" about the kind of interest Socrates took in young men, which originally had no reference to women.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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