Origins of the Meaning of the word 'Philosophy' Eduard Zeller gives as the earliest meaning of the word 'philosophy' as 'thirst for learning'. (Outlines of the History of Greek Philosophy. 13th ed., rev. Nestle, tr. Palmer. (London: 1931), p. 23n) Zeller writes that the word 'philosopher' "seems first to have acquired its technical sense in the circle or Socrates and Plato and only after that to have attained general currency" (p. 23). The Greek word 'philosophia' = 'thirst for education' in Plato's Protagoras 335d-e, 342a-d. "In a new meaning however, [see] Phaedrus 278d [quoted below]." Because of the latter text, Zeller thinks it cannot be correct to attribute the statement that only God is wise to Pythagoras (Diog. L. i, 12 [Pythagoras did not call himself [a wise man, or,] "one who knows" (sophist), but only "one who wants to know" (philosopher) (ibid. viii, 1)]). "Isocrates [436-338 B.C.] too ... called his general education philosophia [meaning what we call Learning (Plato rejects this as too broad in Republic 5.475c-d: a philosopher is not someone who wants to know just any- and every-thing)]." (Zeller, p. 23n) Etymology of 'philosophy' Etymology. The Greek philia means: 'friendship' or 'fondness', from philos: 'dear' [cf. our expression 'philharmonic society': "friends of music"]. The Greek root-word-meaning of the word 'philosophy' would be "love [philo] of wisdom [sophia]"; however, in this particular case, that type of definition [meaning of the word 'meaning'] of the word 'philosophy' does not make its meaning too much clearer. Because what, after all, do we mean by the word 'wisdom'? Although, there is also the question of whether the English word 'wisdom' is the best translation of the Greek word 'sophia'. We use the form expression "Know thyself!", not "Enwisen thyself!" (i.e. "Acquire wisdom of thyself!", "Learn what and who you are!"). And yet the knowledge that is sought is what we call 'wisdom' in English, because it is specifically the knowledge of how we should live our life ("We are discussing no small matter, but how to live"), and in order to know how we should live our life we need to know what manner of being we are and what our end is, that is to say: to what purpose our life exists. If anyone were wise, he would know the answers to these questions. So that the English word 'wisdom' does appear to be the best translation of the Greek word 'sophia'. But, on the other hand, the word 'wisdom' is not always the best translation of 'sophia'. For when Socrates questions the artisans (Apology 22d-e ), he says that the artisans are "wise", or possess sophia, in so far as [i.e. because] they know how to practice their art, although their "wisdom" goes no further than that particular knowledge. But we do not call the knowledge of how to practice an art 'wisdom'. Therefore, sometimes, the English word 'knowledge' will be the best translation of the Greek word 'sophia'. Thus, based on its etymology, the word 'philosophy' might be translated into English as 'thirst for knowledge of how we should live our life'. But that is Ethics, and Ethics is only one branch of Philosophy. Query: compare the etymological definition of 'philosophy' with 'ignorance'. In Italian, as in Latin, 'ignorare' translates as "not to know" or "not knowing" [cf. Spanish 'lo ignoro' = 'I don't know [such-and-such]'], and the Greek word 'philosophía' can be translated as "desire to know". The philosopher (philosophos) is one who desires to know, who wants not to be ignorant (who "wants not to not-know"). Query: compare and contrast ignorance (the absence of knowledge) and philosophy (the love of wisdom). This is important: 'ignorance' defined as 'absence of knowledge' versus 'ignorance' defined as 'thinking you know what you don't know'; Plato's "philosophy begins in wonder " = begins in ignorance, in the first sense of the word 'ignorance'.