🔼The name Philologus: Summary
- Meaning
- Lover Of The Word
- Etymology
- From (1) the adjective φιλος (philos), one who loves, and (2) the noun λογος (logos), word, from the verb λεγω (lego), to speak intelligently.
🔼The name Philologus in the Bible
The name Philologus occurs only once in the Bible, namely at the end of Paul's letter to the Romans (Romans 16:15). Since Christianity was pretty much illegal in Rome, it's unlikely that Paul would mention the real and traceable names of his friends in the capital. It's therefore more likely that Paul used a kind of code, referring to historical figures or scenes from "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16) to get his final (and perhaps politically incorrect or even illegal) points across.
The name Philologus is rather unusual. The only one named such, as far as we know, was Andromachus Philologus, the husband of a 3rd century BC poet named Moero, from whom no work is extant. But the meaning of the name Philologus is so strikingly fitting the husband of a poet that one may be forgiven entertaining the possibility that our "name" is jocular.
🔼Etymology of the name Philologus
The "name" Philologus is the same as philologus, a quite common term in classical literature, which literally means "fond of words" or "talkative". Plato had Socrates use it for himself, when the latter was enticed by his rhetoric sparring partner to speak on an unfamiliar topic, by swearing upon not some god but rather a tree that he would (Plato Phaedrus.236e; see Galatians 3:13). Other writers used it to express a fondness of philosophical argument, or of learning, and as such as synonym for student or eager pupil.
Our word consists of two familiar elements. The first is the adjective φιλος (philos), meaning friend or one who loves:
φιλος φιλεω
The verb φιλεω (phileo) means to love, and the adjective φιλος (philos) means beloved or friend. To be more exact: these words describe a deliberately pursued synchronicity mostly between specific persons. This pursued synchronicity has not so much to do with feelings but with a state of alignment, co-existence, or even symbiosis.
The noun φιλημα (philema) may mean kiss or hug or any such expression of affection.
The second part of our word is the same as the name Logos, which in turn derives from the verb λεγω (lego), meaning to speak intelligently:
λεγω λογος
The verb λεγω (lego) means to speak intelligently, although it appears to have originated in a collecting or gathering together. This verb's Latin equivalent, lego, indeed means to bring together, gather or collect.
From the Latin verb derives the familiar noun legio, legion, and from the Greek verb comes the noun λογος (logos), "word" but in the sense of a whole message, or even more accurate: intelligence as an interconnected network of things known, or the expression of that intelligence.
🔼Philologus meaning
The name Philologus means Lover Of Words or Lover Of The Word, Lover Of Learning or Lover Of Speech