Editing Classical element (section)

=== Plato ===
[[File:Plato Silanion Musei Capitolini MC1377 (cropped).jpg|alt=Head bust of Plato|thumb|211x211px|Plato]]
[[Plato]] (428/423 – 348/347 BC) seems to have been the first to use the term "element ({{lang|grc|στοιχεῖον}}, {{transliteration|grc|stoicheîon}})" in reference to air, fire, earth, and water.<ref>{{Citation |last=Plato |title=Timaeus |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Tim.+48b |at=48b}}</ref>  The ancient Greek word for element, {{transliteration|grc|stoicheion}} (from {{transliteration|grc|stoicheo}}, "to line up") meant "smallest division (of a sun-dial), a syllable", as the composing unit of an alphabet it could denote a letter and the smallest unit from which a word is formed.