epistemen.

Etymology: < ancient Greek ἐπιστήμη knowledge, understanding, skill, scientific knowledge < ἐπιστάναι to know, understand (probably < ἐπι- epi- prefix + ἱστάναι to stand: see stand v.) + -μη , suffix forming nouns; the -η- of the second syllable of ἐπιστήμη is probably after nouns such as μνήμη memory (see mneme n.), ϕήμη words, speech (see pheme n.). Compare post-classical Latin episteme (1517 or earlier). In the specific recent use after French épistémè (1966 in Foucault; also épistémé ); compare:1966 M. Foucault Mots & Choses 13 Ce qu'on voudrait mettre au jour, c'est le champ épistémologique, l'épistémè où les connaissances, envisagées hors de tout critère se référant à leur valeur rationnelle ou à leurs formes objectives, enfoncent leur positivité et manifestent ainsi une histoire qui n'est pas celle de leur perfection croissante, mais plutôt celle de leurs conditions de possibilité. [‘What I am attempting to bring to light is the epistemological field, the episteme in which knowledge, envisaged apart from all criteria having reference to its rational value or to its objective forms, grounds its positivity and thereby manifests a history which is not that of its growing perfection, but rather that of its conditions of possibility.’] Compare the following examples of the Greek word in an English context:1856 W. E. Jelf Note to Aristotle's Ethics ii. vi. 39 Ἐπιστήμη, here used loosely for ‘system’, which proceeds on rules, as distinguished from empiricism, which acts without rules.1907 R. D. Hicks Aristotle's De Anima 307 The student who has a capacity for learning, has only potential knowledge when compared with one who has gone through a course of study. Here ἐπιστήμη is related to ἄγνοια as actual to potential. With the semantic development supposed for ancient Greek ἐπιστάναι from ‘to stand before’ to ‘to understand’ compare forstand v.¹