The ancient Greek concept of an ideal of excellence of character and soundness of mind, when which, combined in one well balanced individual leads to other qualities, such as temperance, moderation, prudence, purity, decorum and self control.
something we should all practice.
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I love learning new words! I’ve never heard or read “sophrosyne” before. Since you mentioned it was an “ancient Greek concept,” I decided to check out the etymology. (I’m a huge language nerd. Just humor me, haha.)
Looks like the first part of the word, “sophro-” comes from the Greek root “sophos.” According to the American Heritage Dictonary, this root means, “clever or wise.” The last part of the word “-syne” comes from some Old English. A simple search on the AHD defines “syne” as essentially before or since a certain point. This knowledge kind of makes sense in your provided definition because it deals with finding wisdom after becoming a “well balanced individual.”
Of course, this doesn’t satisfy my nerd brain, so I ventured further and looked up a word that has the same root (“-syne”). There’s some morphology involved, but “-syne” can be traced back to Greek essentially meaning “to understand” or “to take.” That’s more satisfying to me. You gain these qualities, or take these qualities, after becoming wise.
I encourage everyone to check out the AHD for more cool information on words like the one sydney.aman has shared!
LOVE that nerd brain!! thank you for expanding on this 🙂
Haha, no problem! The American Heratige dictonary is dope because it’s free to the public and has roots and etymology unlike the Oxford English Dictonary, which you need to pay for or have access through a school or library database. Highly recommend if you’re into this sorta thing!