A Brief Glossary of Technical Terms in Aristotle

accident (sumbebekos)

This is actually the perfect active participle of the verb sumbainein, which can mean "happen" and can mean "coincide".

accidental (kata sumbebekos)

In the manner of an accident (q.v.). Often, an appropriate translation is "incidental" or "coincidental". Aristotle frequently contrasts an accidental sense of an expression with another more strict sense.

activity (energeia)

This is an Aristotelian word. Its root is the verb ergein, "work". It is best understood as the opposite of potentiality (q.v.).

actuality (entelecheia)

This is an Aristotelian coinage, derived from en "in", telos "end", and echein "have". So, the sense is something like "possessing the goal". It is often equivalent to energeia.

category (kategoria)

This derives from the verb kategorein, which in ordinary ancient Greek meant "accuse": a kategoria is an accusation. In this sense, it is also a term of Greek law. For aristotle, kategorein takes on a special sense: "say something about", e.g. say a predicate about a subject. The word kategoria thus means "predicate" (as a noun) or "predication". Now, in several places (Categories, Topics I.7) Aristotle offers lists of kinds or genera of predicates (ta gene ton kategorion). By a kind of abbreviation common in Aristotle, "the kinds of predications" get shortened to just "the predications".

cause (aition, aitia)

definition (horos, horismos)

demonstration (apoeixis)

A deduction (sullogismos) productive of knowledge, according to Posterior Analytics I.2.

dialectic (dialektike)

efficient cause (hothen he kinesis)

The phrase "efficient cause" is a Latinate technical term: Aristotle's Greek phrase means "from whence the motion".

essence (to ti en einai, to ti esti)

The word "essence" itself is a Latin attempt at capturing something Aristotle expresses with a phrase: "the what it is to be" or "the what it is". Sometimes, the infinitive einai ("to be") has this sense.

essential (en toi ti esti)

Literally, "in the what it is". Aristotle explains this as "predicated as part of the definition".

final cause (to hou heneka)

In Greek, "that for the sake of which".

for the most part (hos epi to polu)

form (morphe; eidos)

formal cause

genus (genos)

One of the so-called predicables (kategoroumena) of the Topics. The Greek word means "kind", "race".

material cause (to ex hou)

In Greek, "that out of which".

matter (hule)

The root sense of the Greek word hule is "wood" (and that is why the Romans chose to translate it as materia). But wood is a stuff out of which other things are made (compare the way we use "lumber"), and in ordinary Greek hule often means generally "what you can make things out of".

potential (en dunamei)

potentiality (dunamis)

predicable

predication (kategoria)

See "category".

science (episteme)

species (eidos)

substance (ousia)

syllogism