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A.Word.A.Day--platonic Pronunciation: WAV or RealAudio Platonic (pluh-TON-ik, play-) adjective 1. Often Platonical. 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.] 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 human beings 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." "You've been friends for ages. He's like a brother, always there when you need a shoulder to cry on, always up for a last-minute movie date -- but it's been purely platonic between you." Fein, Ellen; Schneider, Sherrie, How to turn a man friend into your main man., Cosmopolitan, 1 Feb 1998. Whether or not the verbs `to starr,' `to tripp,' or the noun `zippergate' will make it to dictionaries and become eponyms remains to be seen. Meanwhile, this week's AWAD features some other eponyms from history, mythology, and fiction. Eponyms are, as long time AWADers well know, words coined after people's names. To see previously featured eponyms, visit: http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/themes.html -Anu X-Bonus If you don't learn to laugh at troubles, you won't have anything to laugh at when you grow old. -Ed Howe

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