- idea
- 1430, "figure, image, symbol," from L. idea "idea," and in Platonic philosophy "archetype," from Gk. idea "ideal prototype," lit. "look, form," from idein "to see," from PIE *wid-es-ya-, suffixed form of base *weid- "to see" (see vision). Sense of "result of thinking" first recorded 1645.
"Men of one idea, like a hen with one chicken, and that a duckling." [Thoreau, "Walden"]