metanoia

• metanœa (obsolete)

From Ancient Greek μετάνοια (metánoia, “repentance”, literally “afterthought”), a compound of μετά (metá, “after, with”) and νοέω (noéō, “to perceive, to think”).

• IPA^(key): /ˌmɛtəˈnɔɪə/
• Rhymes: -ɔɪə

metanoia (countable and uncountable, plural metanoias)

1. A fundamental change of mind.

   Synonym: metanoete

   • 1890 December 9, Thomas H. Huxley, “Letter to the "Times" on the "Darkest England Scheme"”, in Evolution and Ethics and Other Essays‎:

     Sadly behind the great age of rowdy self-advertisement in which their lot has fallen, they seem not to have advanced one whit beyond John the Baptist and the Apostles, 1800 years ago, in their notions of the way in which the metanoia, the change of mind of the ill-doer, is to be brought about.

   • 2017, Armen Avanessian, Anke Hennig, Metanoia: A Speculative Ontology of Language, Thinking, and the Brain, Bloomsbury, →ISBN, page 162:

     Metanoia is the knowledge that there can be totalities in this world totally different from what we thought. This is the sense in which metanoia is the most radical form of poiesis.

2. (in particular) A spiritual or religious conversion.
   • 1948 December, George Santayana, “A Change of Heart”, in The Atlantic‎:

     There is therefore enthusiasm no less than resignation in an enlightened metanoia. You give up everything in the form of claims; you receive everything back in the form of a divine presence.

   • 2012 December 12, Oliver Sacks, “Seeing God in the Third Millennium”, in The Atlantic‎:

     Ecstatic seizures are rare—they only occur in something like 1 or 2 percent of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. But the last half century has seen an enormous increase in the prevalence of other states sometimes permeated by religious joy and awe, "heavenly" visions and voices, and, not infrequently, religious conversion or metanoia.

3. (psychology) A fundamental change in the human personality.
4. (rhetoric) A device used to retract a statement just made, and then state it in a better way.

   Synonyms: correctio, epanorthosis

   • 2015 April 28, Martin Shovel, “I'm sorry, I'll say that again – the rhetorical trick of metanoia”, in The Guardian‎, →ISSN:

     Two months after Obama’s autocue mishap, his vice-presidential running mate Joe Biden raised a laugh when he used metanoia in his speech to the Democratic convention:
     “You know, folks, that’s the America that George Bush has left us. And that’s the America we’ll continue to get if George – excuse me, if John McCain is elected president of the United States of America. Freudian slip. Freudian slip.”

• paranoia

• road to Damascus

• metanoia (theology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• metanoia (rhetoric) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• metanoia (psychology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• IPA^(key): /mɛ.taˈnɔ.ja/
• Rhymes: -ɔja
• Syllabification: me‧ta‧no‧ia

metanoia f

1. (philosophy, rare) Alternative spelling of metanoja
   • 1996, Janusz Nagórny, Andrzej Derdziuk, Vivere in Christo: chrześcijański horyzont moralności : księga pamiątkowa ku czci księdza profesora Seweryna Rosika w 65. rocznicę urodzin:

     Metanoia niesie z sobą także nowe i pogłębione rozumienie Boga i Jego świętej woli.

     Metanoia also brings with it a new and deeper understanding of God and His holy will

• Gerald O'Collins, Edward G. Farrugia (2002) “metanoia”, in Jan Ożóg and Barbara Żak, transl., Henryk Pietras, editor, Leksykon pojęć teologicznych i kościelnych, 2 edition, Kraków: Wydawnictwo WAM, →ISBN

• Hyphenation: me‧ta‧noi‧a

metanoia f (plural metanoias)

1. metanoia