hypostasis

American  

[hahy-pos-tuh-sis, hi-] / haɪˈpɒs tə sɪs, hɪ- /

noun

• hypostases
  plural

1. Metaphysics.

   1. something that stands under and supports; foundation.

   2. the underlying or essential part of anything as distinguished from attributes; substance, essence, or essential principle.

2. Theology.

   1. one of the three real and distinct substances in the one undivided substance or essence of God.

   2. a person of the Trinity.

   3. the one personality of Christ in which His two natures, human and divine, are united.

3. Medicine/Medical.

   1. the accumulation of blood or its solid components in parts of an organ or body due to poor circulation.

   2. such sedimentation, as in a test tube.

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hypostasis British  

/ haɪˈpɒstəsɪs /

noun

1. metaphysics the essential nature of a substance as opposed to its attributes

2. Christianity

   1. any of the three persons of the Godhead, together constituting the Trinity

   2. the one person of Christ in which the divine and human natures are united

3. the accumulation of blood in an organ or part, under the influence of gravity as the result of poor circulation

4. another name for epistasis

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hypostatic
  adjective
• hypostatically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• hypostases
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of hypostasis

1580–90; < Late Latin < Greek hypóstasis that which settles at the bottom; substance, nature, essence, equivalent to hypo- hypo- + stásis standing, stasis

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hypostasis hypostases

On the contrary, others, considering only the subject of filiation, which is the person or hypostasis, put only one filiation in Christ, just as there is but one hypostasis or person.

From Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas

And there is no reason why this being should not be multiplied in one hypostasis or person; for the being whereby Socrates is white is distinct from the being whereby he is a musician.

From Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas

Nevertheless action is attributed to the nature as to that whereby the person or hypostasis acts.

From Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas

And the reason of this is that, since there is one hypostasis of both natures, the same hypostasis is signified by the name of either nature.

From Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas

Objection 1: It would seem that Christ as Man is a hypostasis or person.

From Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas

At the Council of Constantinople, 56 years later, church fathers responded to heresy by defining the divinity of the Holy Spirit and proclaiming that the three "persons," or hypostases, were coequal manifestations of one God.

From Time Magazine Archive

So the divine persons are named supposita or "hypostases," but not as if there really existed any real "supposition" or "subjection."

From Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas

It had theories on the essence of God, and saw Him in three Persons, or hypostases, one aspect of God as power, another as love, and the other as intelligence.

From Initiation into Philosophy by Émile Faguet

Wherefore, we have here plainly an Egyptian Trinity of divine hypostases subordinate, Eicton, Emeph or Cneph, and Phtha.”

From The Masculine Cross A History of Ancient and Modern Crosses and Their Connection with the Mysteries of Sex Worship; Also an Account of the Kindred Phases of Phallic Faiths and Practices by Anonymous

And yet the most distinctive doctrine of Plotinus and the later Neo-Platonists among the Arabs, the series of emanating hypostases, Intellect, Universal Soul, Nature, Matter, and so on, is wanting in the "Hegyon ha-Nefesh."

From A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy by Isaac Husik

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