Eunoia

For the book by Canadian poet Christian Bök, see Eunoia (book).

In rhetoric, eunoia is the goodwill a speaker cultivates between himself/herself and his/her audience, a condition of receptivity.[1] It comes from the Greek word εὔνοια, meaning "well mind" or "beautiful thinking".[2] In book eight of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses the term to refer to the kind and benevolent feelings of goodwill a spouse has which form the basis for the ethical foundation of human life.[3] Cicero translates εὔνοια (eunoia) with the Latin word benevolentia.[4]

It is also a rarely used medical term referring to a state of normal mental health.[5] Eunoia is the shortest English word containing all five main vowel graphemes.[2]

In popular culture

See also

References

  1. ↑ Garver, Eugene (1994). Aristotle's Rhetoric: An Art of Character. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 112. ISBN 9780226284255.
  2. 1 2 "Beautiful vowels". Today (BBC Radio 4). BBC. Eunoia is the shortest word in English containing all five vowels - and it means "beautiful thinking". It is also the title of Canadian poet Christian Bok's book of fiction in which each chapter uses only one vowel.
  3. ↑ The Family In Aristotle
  4. ↑ Gloria Vivenza, "Classical Roots of Benevolence in Economic Thought," Ancient Economic Thought (Routledge, 1997) pp. 198–199, 204–208 online; Cicero's influence on patristic usage, Carolinne White, Christian Friendship in the Fourth Century (Cambridge University Press, 1992, 2002), pp. 16–17 online, 32, and p. 255, note 13.
  5. ↑ Definition: eunoia from Online Medical Dictionary
  6. ↑ There’s going to be a new junior college called Eunoia; here’s how to pronounce it
  7. ↑ What kinda weird school name is this la sial?!

External links


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