Two Words of The Day

numen, n.

Pronunciation:  Brit. /ˈnjuːmən/ , U.S. /ˈn(j)um(ə)n/

Inflections:   Plural numina Brit. /ˈnjuːmᵻnə/ , U.S. /ˈn(j)umənə/ , (irreg.) numena Brit. /ˈnjuːmənə/ , U.S. /ˈn(j)umənə/ ;

Etymology:  < classical Latin nūmen divine will, divine power, divinity, god < -nuere to nod (in e.g. abnuere, innuere, renuere; also as simplex in undated glosses) < the same Indo-European base as ancient Greek νεύειν to nod.

  Divinity, god; a local or presiding power or spirit.

1495   Trevisa's Bartholomeus De Proprietatibus Rerum (de Worde) xvii. cxlii. sig. Tiij^v/2,   And the wode that hyght Nemus hath that name of Numen: that is god, for therin Yoo made a maw met.

1582   S. Batman Vppon Bartholome, De Proprietatibus Rerum xvii. cxlii. f. 318/²,   The Woode that is called Nemus, hath the name of Numen, that is God.

1628   O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xvi. sig. L ^v,   As if allowing them the name, they would conserue the Numen to themselues.

1634   T. Herbert Relation Some Yeares Trauaile 193   That what they first meet..they make their Numen and tutelary God for that day.

1662   H. More Coll. Philos. Writings (ed. 2) Pref. Gen. p. ix,   For it is the same Numen in us that moves all things in some sort or other.

1711   Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks III. Misc. ii. ii. 65   They madly dote upon Matter, and devoutly worship it, as the only Numen.

1790   Ann. Reg. 1788 Antiquities 120/1   Any local one [sc. idol], whose Numen and worship..was already established as local, would not do.

1835   J. Taylor Wks. I. 112   The Divine presence hath made all places holy, and every place hath a Numen in it, even the eternal God.

1874   J. Fergusson in Contemp. Rev. Oct. 765   In a cathedral town where all unite..in..adoring the sacred and historical numen of the place.

1910   Encycl. Brit. I. 760/1   To the primitive..the presence of the divinity was indicated by..landmarks; and from this..grew the theory that a numen might be induced to take up an abode in an artificial heap of stones.

1936   E. Underhill Worship x. 197   In the teaching of the prophets of the Reform of Josiah, and of the Exile, we find God recognized and adored..as the Numen, the Eternal One, the utterly Transcendent.., and as the giver of the Moral Law.

1994   C. DeLint Memory & Dream 329   You call them numena, yourself. Strictly speaking, a numen is merely a spiritual force, an influence one might feel around a certain thing or place.

noumenon, n.

Pronunciation:  Brit. /ˈnuːmᵻnɒn/ , /ˈnaʊmᵻnɒn/ , U.S. /ˈnuməˌnɑn/

Inflections:   Plural noumena Brit. /ˈnuːmᵻnə/ , /ˈnaʊmᵻnə/ , U.S. /ˈnuməˌnə/ ;

Forms:  17– noumenon, 19– noümena.

Etymology:  < German Noumenon (1783; plural Noumena ) < ancient Greek νοούμενον (plural νοούμενα , used by Plato in speaking of the Ideas, as perceived by the mind rather than the senses, e.g. at Republic 508c), use as noun of neuter of present participle passive of νοεῖν to apprehend, conceive (see noesis n.); introduced by E. Kant (1724–1804), German philosopher, in contrast to phenomenon n.

(in Kantian philosophy) a thing as it is in itself, as distinct from a thing as it is knowable by the senses through phenomenal attributes.

Kant uses the word in a Latin context in his De mundis sensibilis et intelligibilis forma et principiis (1770).

N.E.D. (1907) gives only the pronunciation (nɑu·mĕnǫn) /ˈnuːmənɒn/ /ˈnaʊmənɒn/ 

Chiefly Philos.

An object knowable only by the mind or intellect, not by the senses; spec. (in Kantian philosophy) an object of purely intellectual intuition, devoid of all phenomenal attributes.

1796   F. A. Nitsch Gen. View Kant's Princ. conc. Man 118   The conception we have of the world of Noumena, contains no knowledge of that world, but is a mere conception of demarkation [i.e. Grenzbegriff, or limiting concept].

1798   W. Taylor in Monthly Rev. 25 585   The phænomena of beauty, with respect to him [sc. Kant], rank among the noumena.

1803   Edinb. Rev. Jan. 267   We will admit to the transcendentalist his solitary noumenon and its separate functions.

1867   G. H. Lewes Hist. Philos. (ed. 3) II. 485   The peculiar merit of his doctrine is held to be that he distinguishes Phenomena from things in themselves, or Noumena.

1877   E. Caird Crit. Acct. Philos. Kant ii. xiii. 498   In a negative sense, a noumenon would be an object not given in sensuous perception; in a positive sense, a noumenon would be an object given in a non-sensuous, i.e. an intellectual perception.

1910   Encycl. Brit. XIX. 828/2   In the Kantian system the term ‘noümena’ means things-in-themselves as opposed to ‘phenomena’ or things as they appear to us.

1967   Listener 27 July 123/3   It was a revelation, a vision of the noumenon..and I fear that—for quite a long time—we will glory in the sensuous bliss of it all.

1993   B. Kosko Fuzzy Thinking (1994) xv. 279   It is not a Kantian noumenon or ‘thing in itself’ out there beyond the senses. It is a phenomenon in our senses and brain.