Ideas across traditions · meditation · Medieval Latin

contemplatio

A common word: it appears in 30% of all works on the maps, so its reach across traditions is a fact about English, not about the idea. The works are listed for completeness; the analogues below are the judged connections.

Also under: contemplation · contemplative · contemplacion · contemplacione · contemplacien · contemplatie · contemplatione · “beschauung” · “beschouwinge” · “θεωρία” · “beschaulichkeit” · “θεωρίαν” · “θεωρίᾳ” · “התבוננות” · “beschauligkeit”

143works in other traditions, with a cited page
32works in Medieval Latin, its home tradition on the maps
448further works where only a vocabulary list or keyword names it; not shown
2judged analogues in other traditions (a different word for a neighbouring idea)

Analogues, judged

A different word, in another tradition, that a reviewer judged to name a neighbouring idea. These are not attestations of contemplatio; each carries the reviewer’s confidence and reason.

  • dhyāna Indian65%Sanskrit meditative absorption glossed 'meditation/Zen' — an adjacent practice in another tradition, not a rendering of contemplatio
  • murāqaba Arabic60%Latin Christian contemplation ('first comes operation, then contemplation') - an adjacent contemplative concept, not a rendering of muraqaba (judged from the other side)

In other traditions

Ordered by the earliest work in each tradition that attests the concept. Within a tradition, works run from earliest to latest by conventional composition date.

Zoroastrianfrom 1000 BCE · 2 works

Chinesefrom 600 BCE · 2 works

Greekfrom 430 BCE · 14 works

and 9 more works in Greek; a common word, so the full list is not shown.

Indianfrom 400 BCE · 3 works

Hellenistic & Late Antiquefrom 350 BCE · 27 works

and 22 more works in Hellenistic & Late Antique; a common word, so the full list is not shown.

Romanfrom 44 BCE · 3 works

Hermetic & Gnosticfrom 150 CE · 7 works

and 2 more works in Hermetic & Gnostic; a common word, so the full list is not shown.

Early Christian & Monasticfrom 225 CE · 15 works

and 10 more works in Early Christian & Monastic; a common word, so the full list is not shown.

Byzantine & Orthodoxfrom 600 CE · 11 works

and 6 more works in Byzantine & Orthodox; a common word, so the full list is not shown.

Syriac & Armenianfrom 650 CE · 4 works

Buddhistfrom 900 CE · 1 work

Arabicfrom 1045 · 5 works

Hebrew & Jewishfrom 1190 · 3 works

Renaissance & Early Modern Europefrom 1474 · 30 works

and 25 more works in Renaissance & Early Modern Europe; a common word, so the full list is not shown.

Persianfrom 1657 · 1 work

Modern Europeanfrom 1790 · 10 works

and 5 more works in Modern European; a common word, so the full list is not shown.

Theosophical & Modern Esotericfrom 1857 · 5 works

At home in Medieval Latin

and 24 more.

Evidence gate. A work is listed only where a translator marked the word as a term with a gloss, or kept the original word beside the English, on at least one page of a held edition. Vocabulary lists and keywords alone do not count: in a Greek vocabulary list ἡσυχία is the ordinary word for quiet. Up to 3 pages are shown per work, preferring those with a gloss. The vocabulary was built 2026-09-11; the graph on 2026-09-13.