[Meaning] before this, remaining,[1] near the present indivisible now. A part of time, either of the future or of the past;[2] for we say that [someone] is already taking a walk, and [so we create] the link to the now; for [we say] also that [someone] has already taken a walk, not separating much the time from the now.[3]
Êdê: pro toutou, loipon, to engus tou parontos nun atomou. meros de chronou, ê tou mellontos ê tou parelêluthotos: êdê te gar badieisthai phamen: kai to sunapton tôi nun: êdê te gar bebadikenai: ou polu aphistantes tou nun ton chronon.
For this headword see also
eta 86,
eta 88. The present entry is also in
Photius (
Lexicon eta47) and other lexica; see also (e.g.)
Hesychius eta114 and eta117, and Apollonius'
Homeric Lexicon (82.16).
Substantively speaking, the material derives, with variations, from
Aristotle,
Physics 222b7-11; see further below.
[1] sc. In the future.
[2]
Aristotle’s text is much clearer: "soon is the part of future time which is near the present indivisible now. (When do you take your walk? Soon – just now – because the time when I am about to take my walk is near), and [soon is the part] of the past time which is not far from the now (When do you take a walk? I have already taken my walk)". So, 'the soon or just now', as other temporal determinations such as 'recently', is defined by reference to the now.
[3] Time cannot be separated from the now because, even though it is not a part of time (as the past and future are), the now distinguishes past from future and is the limit in reference of which the past and future time can be considered. See
Aristotle,
Physics 218a6-30, and 219b11-12: "the now determines time insofar as it is a before and an after". That is, the now is a before of the future time, and an after of the past time.
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