‖ idolum, -on
(aɪˈdəʊləm, -ɒn)
Pl. idola (also 7 -aes, -ums).
[L. īdōlum, a. Gr. εἴδωλον idol. Cf. also eidolon, and see idol 6, 7.]
1. An image or unsubstantial appearance; a spectre or phantom; a mental image, an idea.
| 1619 Purchas Microcosmus lviii. 568 The Constitution of the Soule, which is conflate of the Mind, Spirit, and Animall Soule, or Idolum. 1647 H. More Song of Soul iii. ii. xxxi, If like be known by like, then must the mind Innate idolums in it self contain, To judge the forms she doth imprinted find Upon occasions. 1857 T. E. Webb Intellectualism Locke iv. 68 If by the inadvertent utterance of the wrong spell the magician has evoked a host of idola, he has himself furnished the counter-spell by which they are to be exorcised. |
2. A false mental image or conception; a fallacy.
| [1620 Bacon Nov. Org. i. xxxix, Quatuor sunt genera Idolorum quæ mentes humanas obsedent. Iis (docendi gratiâ) nomina imposuimus; vt primum genus, Idola Tribûs; secundum, Idola specûs; tertium, Idola Fori; quartum, Idola Theatri vocentur.] |
| 1640 G. Watts tr. Bacon's Adv. Learn. v. iv. §3 As for the Elenchs of Images or Idolaes; certainly Idolaes are the profoundest Fallacies of the mind of man. 1654 Whitlock Zootomia 255 To come to the second Bench of Censurers, fitted with peevish exclusive Notions, or Idola made by Education, Tradition, etc. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. v. §1. 679 This opinion..can be accounted no other than an idolum specus (as some affect to phrase it: note—Lord Bacon in his Novum Organon) or a prejudice of men's minds. 1865 Lecky Ration. (1878) I. 403 Bacon..was pre-eminently noted for his classification of the idola or distorting influences that act on the mind. 1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. ii. 63 What were intended to be mental landmarks become what Bacon expressively termed Idola, empty assumptions and misconceptions. |