HYPOSTASIS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Hypostasis

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noun

Hypostasis n. (pl. hypostases)

That which forms the basis of anything; underlying principle; a concept or mental entity conceived or treated as an existing being or thing.

(Theol.) Substance; subsistence; essence; person; personality; used by the early theologians to denote any one of the three subdivisions of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Note: The Council of Alexandria (a. d. 362) defined hypostasis as synonymous with person.

Principle; an element; used by the alchemists in speaking of salt, sulphur, and mercury, which they considered as the three principles of all material bodies.

(Med.) That which is deposited at the bottom of a fluid; sediment.

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Etymology of 'Hypostasis'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Hypostasis" Quotes from Famous Books

... called either almsgiving in charity, of charitable almsgiving. But, just as the two natures, the divine and the human, were not merged in one another in the mystery of the Incarnation, although joined in the unity of the hypostasis of the Word, so this conjunction of charity with almsgiving, or this subordination of almsgiving to charity, does not change the one into the other, the object of each being as different as is the Creator from the creature. For the object of almsgiving is the misery ...

— The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales • Jean Pierre Camus

... accidents, whether they be qualities or actions, we necessarily suppose to have some support; and this we call substance, deriving the term from the Latin, or hypostasis, if we choose to borrow from the Greek. But what this substance, or hypostasis, is, independently of its qualities or actions, we know not. This is clearly proved by Locke. What do we mean by matter? and what by mind? Matter is that which is solid, extended, divisible, movable, and occupies space. ...

— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... necessary, if it be possible. I doubt whether any man in this audience who has not made a special study of the subject, will get up and say that the meaning of such terms as 'substance,' 'essence,' 'nature,' 'hypostasis,' 'person,' 'eternal generation,' 'procession,' 'hypostatic union,' and the like is at once evident to him by the light of nature and an ordinary modern education. And those who know most about the matter will most fully realize ...

— Philosophy and Religion - Six Lectures Delivered at Cambridge • Hastings Rashdall

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