FromLatinelenchus, fromAncient Greekἔλεγχος(élenkhos,“refutation, scrutiny, control”).Doublet ofelench.
elenchus (pluralelenchi)
- (rhetoric) A technique ofargument associated withSocrates wherein the arguer asks theinterlocutor to agree with a series ofpremises andconclusions, ending with the arguer's intended point.
1991, Thomas c. Brickhouse, Nicholas D. Smith, “Socrates’ Elenctic Mission”, inOxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, volume IX, Oxford University Press,→ISBN,pages131–132:Theelenchus begins when an interlocutor makes some moral claim that Socrates wishes to examine. The argument then proceeds from premisses that express certain of the interlocutor’s other beliefs to a conclusion that contradicts the original moral claim under scrutiny.
FromAncient Greekἔλεγχος(élenkhos,“refutation, scrutiny”), fromProto-Indo-European*h₁lengʰ-(“to accuse, to scold”).
elenchus m (genitiveelenchī);second declension
- costlytrinket (especially an earring)
- refutation
- (Late Latin, Medieval Latin)list
- Elenchus tamen Sanctorum necnon Beatorum in Martyrologio ―Thelist however of Saints and Blesseds in the Martyrology
Second-declension noun.
- “elenchus”, inCharlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879),A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- “elenchus”, inCharlton T. Lewis (1891),An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- "elenchus", in Charles du Fresne du Cange,Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
- “elenchus”, inGaffiot, Félix (1934),Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
- “elenchus”, inHarry Thurston Peck, editor (1898),Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- elenchus inRamminger, Johann (16 July 2016 (last accessed)),Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016
- “elenchus”, inWilliam Smith et al., editor (1890),A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
