Dictionary
Thesaurus
Encyclopedia
Translator
Web
Definition of platonic - 3 dictionary results

Pla⋅ton⋅ic

[pluh-ton-ik, pley-]
–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


Pla⋅ton⋅i⋅cal⋅ly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To platonic
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.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

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
Cite This Source
Search another word or see platonic on Thesaurus | Reference
FacebookTwitterFollow us: