[B-Greek] "Gnostic" and "agnostic"?

jgibson000 at comcast.net jgibson000 at comcast.net
Mon Apr 11 17:11:15 EDT 2011


On 4/11/2011 4:03 PM, Carl Conrad wrote:
> but my dictionary doesn't indicate usage of the
> English word "agnostic" before 1830. I would look to evidence cited
> by the OED -- but you don't see any connection indicated there.
>    
Here's the OED entry.

Jeffrey

*****

agnostic, n. and adj.
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Pronunciation: /ægˈnɒstɪk/
Etymology: < Greek ἄγνωστ-ος unknowing, unknown, unknowable ( < ἀ not + 
γνο- know) + -ic suffix. Compare gnostic adj. and n.; in Greek the 
termination -ικός never coëxists with the privative ἀ-.... (Show More)
A. n.

One who holds that the existence of anything beyond and behind material 
phenomena is unknown and (so far as can be judged) unknowable, and 
especially that a First Cause and an unseen world are subjects of which 
we know nothing.[Suggested by Prof. Huxley at a party held previous to 
the formation of the now defunct Metaphysical Society, at Mr. James 
Knowles's house on Clapham Common, one evening in 1869, in my hearing. 
He took it from St. Paul's mention of the altar to ‘the Unknown God.’ R. 
H. Hutton in letter 13 Mar. 1881.]
1870 Spectator 29 Jan. 135 In theory he [Prof. Huxley] is a great and 
even severe Agnostic, who goes about exhorting all men to know how 
little they know.
1874 St. G. Mivart Ess. Relig. etc. 205 Our modern Sophists—the 
Agnostics,—those who deny we have any knowledge, save of phenomena.
1876 Spectator 11 June, Nicknames are given by opponents, but Agnostic 
was the name demanded by Professor Huxley for those who disclaimed 
atheism, and believed with him in an ‘unknown and unknowable’ God; or in 
other words that the ultimate origin of all things must be some cause 
unknown and unknowable.
1880 Bp. Fraser in Manch. Guardn. 25 Nov., The Agnostic neither denied 
nor affirmed God. He simply put Him on one side.


B. adj.


Of or pertaining to agnostics or their theory.
1873 Q. Rev. 135 192 The pseudo-scientific teachers of what has‥been 
termed‥the Agnostic Philosophy.
1876 Tulloch Agnosticism in Weekly Scotsm. 18 Nov., The same agnostic 
principle which prevailed in our schools of philosophy had extended 
itself to religion and theology. Beyond what man can know by his senses 
or feel by his higher affections, nothing, as was alleged, could be 
truly known.
1880 G. C. M. Birdwood Indian Arts I. 4 The agnostic teaching of the 
Sankhya school is the common basis of all systems of Indian philosophy.
1882 J. A. Froude T. Carlyle: First Forty Years II. ix. 216 The agnostic 
doctrines, he [sc. Carlyle] once said to me, were to appearance like the 
finest flour, from which you might expect the most excellent bread; but 
when you came to feed on it you found it was powdered glass and you had 
been eating the deadliest poison.

2. Pathol. = agnosic adj. at agnosia n. Derivatives.
[1935 Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp. 57 332 It is significant that finger 
agnosia should be present without other autotopagnostic features.]
1941 J. M. Nielsen Clin. Neurol. x. 274 Agnostic alexia is due to loss 
of power of visual recognition of the symbols of language.
1946 J. M. Nielsen Agnosia, Apraxia, Aphasia (ed. 2) ii. 34 Agnostic 
alexia is the failure of recognition of letters, figures, syllables, and 
words.
1953 Brain 76 546 Our agnostic patient‥seemed to have an alexia.
1975 Bull. N.Y. Acad. Med. 51 1161 The actions of naloxone were not 
agnostic, since the administration of either morphine or oxymorphone 
routinely reduced the amplitude of all reflexes tested.


Draft additions October 2009
A. n.

2. A person who is unpersuaded by or uncommitted to a particular point 
of view; a sceptic. Also: person of indeterminate ideology or 
conviction; an equivocator.
1885 Western Druggist 15 Dec. 359/2 Judge Chipman is clearly an agnostic 
on the subject of pills.
1909 Westm. Gaz. 16 Apr. 7/3 On this question of a preferential tariff, 
Mr. Mayhew had no hesitation in confessing himself an agnostic.
1921 J. E. Mercer Alchemy i. v. 61 As regards alchemy, he was an 
agnostic. On the one hand, he would not venture to set bounds to the 
possible in nature; on the other hand, he could not yield assent.
1988 Q Oct. 42 Even a confirmed agnostic on the issue, Dire Straits' 
manager‥can see an obvious reason [for sponsorship].
2002 Chicago Tribune (Midwest ed.) 10 Nov. x. 14/1 A slightly muddled 
‘death-penalty agnostic’, someone who vacillated between opposition to 
execution and thinking it a sad necessity in horrific cases.



Draft additions October 2009
B. adj.

3. Uncommitted to or unpersuaded by a particular point of view; 
sceptical. Also: politically or ideologically unaligned; non-partisan, 
undogmatic; equivocal.
1884 Syracuse (N.Y.) Standard 23 June 7/1 There, are also among them 
many worthy young persons who have been brought up on the sincere milk 
of agnostic politics.
1891 Rev. of Reviews May 456/1 An agnostic non-committalism.
1955 Bull. Atomic Sci. Mar. 94/2 The two colonels are justified in their 
agnostic attitude toward nuclear radiation hazards.
1991 P. Robertson New World Order ii. v. 161 For America‥it is 
morally‥impossible to propose a new Jerusalem and yet at the same time 
remain agnostic or indifferent about genocide and ecocide in Indochina.
2001 Wall St. Jrnl. 17 Jan. a26/5 At this point, I am agnostic on Mr. 
Powell as chairman. A better choice may be an academic.

-- 
Jeffrey B. Gibson, D.Phil. (Oxon)
1500 W. Pratt Blvd.
Chicago, Illinois
e-mail jgibson000 at comcast.net




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