pleroma

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See also: Pleroma, pléroma, and плерома

English

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WOTD – 25 March 2024

Etymology

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Princess flower (Pleroma urvilleanum), a species of pleroma (noun sense 1.1).

Learned borrowing from Late Latin pleroma (“(Gnosticism) spiritual universe seen as the totality of the essence and powers of God”), from Koine Greek πλήρωμᾰ (plḗrōma, “(biblical) perfect fullness”), Ancient Greek πλήρωμᾰ (plḗrōma, “that which fills, a complement; a filling up, a completing”), from πληρόω (plēróō, “to make full, fill; to complete, finish”) (from πλήρης (plḗrēs, “complete, full”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)) + -όω (-óō, suffix forming verbs with the sense of making someone be or do something)) + -μᾰ (-ma, suffix forming nouns denoting the result or effect of an action).[1][2]

Sense 1.1 (“plant”) is borrowed from New Latin Pleroma, a genus name coined by the Scottish botanist David Don (1799–1841) in 1822, from Ancient Greek πλήρωμᾰ (plḗrōma) (see above) to describe the way the seeds of the plant filled the capsule.[3]

Sense 2 (“state of perfect fullness”) is chiefly used in reference to Colossians 2:9 of the Bible: “Ὅτι ἐν αὐτῶῳ κατοικεῖ πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα τῆς θεότητος σωματικῶς (Hóti en autôōi katoikeî pân tò plḗrōma tês theótētos sōmatikôs) [For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form]”.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pleroma (countable and uncountable, plural pleromas)

  1. (botany)
    2. A plant of the genus Pleroma.
    3. (archaic or obsolete, rare) Synonym of plerome (“the central portion of the apical meristem in a growing plant root or stem which, according to the histogen theory, gives rise to the endodermis and stele”)
      • 1876 December 9, “[Punctum vegetationis, or Growing Point of Dicotyledonous Roots]”, in The Gardeners’ Chronicle. A Weekly Illustrated Journal of Horticulture and Allied Subjects, volume VI (New Series), number 154, London: Bradbury, Agnew, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 750, column 1:
        In his [Jakob Eriksson's] investigations of the meristem (the tissue from which the permanent tissues are formed) by dicotyledonous roots he found four types of growth, […] In the second type only two separate meristem tissues are present in the tips of the roots; a pleroma and a common tissue, from which the primary bark and epidermis and root-cap proceed.
      • 1890 August 22, Edward Aveling, “Botany for Students. Chapter XXII.—The Root.”, in The English Mechanic and World of Science and Art. […], volume LI, number 1326, London: […] E[beneezer] J. Kibblewhite, […], →OCLC, page 543, column 2:
        [I]n the pleroma of the primary meristem of roots there is not only cambium (persistent parenchyma) and procambium (forerunner of fibres and vessels), but pericambium—i.e., a special outer layer of the plerome that remains for a long time as meristem.
      • 2001, Russian Journal of Developmental Biology: A Journal of Original Papers and Reviews on Developmental and Cell Biology, volume 32, Moscow: Pleiades Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 205, column 1:
        In the pleroma of hyacinth and pea roots, increases along the meristem, especially in its basal part […].
  3. (Christianity) A state of perfect fullness, especially of God's being as incarnated in Jesus Christ.
    • 1697 May 5 (date written; Gregorian calendar), E. W. [i.e., Edward Stillingfleet], “Postscript”, in The Bishop of Worcester’s Answer to Mr. [John] Locke’s Letter, Concerning Some Passages Relating to His Essay of Humane Understanding, […], London: […] J. H. for Henry Mortlock […], published 1697, →OCLC, page 143:
      And is all this Cabala too, and only to be uſed when People are to be gulled with noiſy Nothings? i.e. with empty Pleroma's, and ſilent Thunderclaps.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Proper noun

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pleroma

  1. (Gnosticism, historical) Often preceded by the: the spiritual universe seen as the totality of the essence and powers of God.
    • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, “Macabru”, in Monsieur (The Avignon Quartet; 1), New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, published 1975, →ISBN, page 131:
      There is a way to comprehend the gnostic's giant onion of a world, the concentric circles, with the Pleroma beckoning there, the white heart of light, the source of that primal vision which for a second or two can recapture paradise.

Alternative forms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “pleroma, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; compare “plerome, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “pleroma, n.”, in Collins English Dictionary.
  3. ^ David Don (1822 November 16) “XXIV.—An Illustration of the Natural Family of Plants called Melastomaceæ.”, in Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society, volume IV, part II, Edinburgh: […] [by P. Neill] for Adam Black, […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, published 1823, →OCLC, page 295: “Nomen duxi ab voce Græca πληρωμα, plenitudo, quòd loculi capsulæ placentis carnosis seminiferis farcti sunt. ― I took the name from the Greek word πληρωμα, fullness, as the loculi of the capsules are stuffed with fleshy seed-producing cakes.”

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Catalan

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Catalan Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ca

Etymology

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From Ancient Greek πλήρωμα (plḗrōma).

Noun

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pleroma m (uncountable)

  1. (Gnosticism) pleroma

Further reading

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Italian

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Italian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia it

Etymology

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From Ancient Greek πλήρωμα (plḗrōma).

Noun

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pleroma m

  1. (Gnosticism) pleroma

Anagrams

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Portuguese

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Portuguese Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia pt

Etymology

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From Ancient Greek πλήρωμα (plḗrōma).

Pronunciation

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  • Hyphenation: ple‧ro‧ma

Noun

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pleroma m (uncountable)

  1. (Gnosticism) pleroma

Serbo-Croatian

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Etymology

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From Ancient Greek πλήρωμα (plḗrōma, “a filling up, fullness”).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /plerǒːma/
  • Hyphenation: ple‧ro‧ma

Noun

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pleróma f (Cyrillic spelling плеро́ма)

  1. (uncountable, Gnosticism) Pleroma

Declension

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Declension of pleroma
singular
nominative pleroma
genitive plerome
dative pleromi
accusative pleromu
vocative pleromo
locative pleromi
instrumental pleromom
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