zenonianhttp://www.oed.com/dictionary/zenonian_adj3%3Ftab%3Dmeaning_and_useZenonian, adj.³ & n.²
Revised 2018

Zenonianadjective3 & noun2

  1. adjective
    1. 1837–
      Of or relating to the Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea (early 5th cent. b.c.) considered by Aristotle as the originator of dialectic (dialectic n.1 1a); of or relating to the philosophical ideas of Zeno of Elea, esp. his paradoxes.
      1. 1837
        This part of the solution..is substantially what Aristotle means in his remark on the Zenonian paradox.
        H. N. Coleridge in S. T. Coleridge, Friend (ed. 3) vol. III. iii. 93
      2. 1850
        Generalising dialectics and Zenonian negation.
        G. Grote, History of Greece vol. VIII. ii. lxviii. 565
      3. 1935
        The regiment of Zenonian paradoxes relative to the impossibility of motion or temporal succession.
        Times Literary Supplement 4 July 426/2
      4. 2002
        Who would dare say that the paradox he comes to embrace by the end of his story..does not invite skeptical, Zenonian interrogation?
        New York Review of Books 26 September 60/1
  2. noun
    1. 1952–
      A follower or student of Zeno of Elea; a person who holds similar views to those of Zeno of Elea (cf. sense A).
      1. 1952
        The reasoning on which it is based will not depend upon the particular lengths which Zenonians wish us to ‘compound’.
        Philosophy of Science vol. 19 301
      2. 1979
        That atomistic answer has left most Zenonians unmoved.
        J. Barnes, Presocratic Philosophers vol. I. xii. 245
      3. 2014
        Modern-day Zenonians do not deny the existence of nondegenerate segments.
        Philos. Science vol. 81 673

Originally published as part of the entry for Zenonian, adj.¹ & n.¹

Zenonian, adj.³ & n.² was revised in June 2018.

Zenonian, adj.³ & n.² was last modified in July 2023.