Plato, Cratylus, section 423b

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[423b] would be accomplished by bodily imitation of that which was to be expressed.

Hermogenes
Yes.

Socrates
And when we wish to express anything by voice or tongue or mouth, will not our expression by these means be accomplished in any given instance when an imitation of something is accomplished by them?

Hermogenes
I think that is inevitable.

Socrates
A name, then, it appears, is a vocal imitation of that which is imitated, and he who imitates with his voice names that which he imitates.

Hermogenes
I think that is correct.

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.

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