Phenomenal

[John Barton]

The ancient Greeks divided the world into two halves, phenomenal and noumenal. Things material and detectable by the senses, such as horses or air, versus purely mental concepts such as truth, beauty, love.
But the meaning of the first has apparently been corrupted into 'spectacular'.
Whence: "The rise in the price of food has been phenomenal". A price is a mental concept, hence the rise should strictly be noumenal.

Let alone that, as Plato made clear, our only understanding of material objects is via the mind, and in turn via the senses.
The Greeks stopped there, apparently under the delusion that they WERE minds, and not something beyond that computer which was capable of changing or controlling it. 'Pneuma' or spirit; that which observes, and which operates body and mind.

I have remedied this by adding a nonce-word as follows:
Material: phenomenon, phenomena, phenomenal
Mental: noumenon, noumena, noumenal
Spiritual: pneumaticon, pneumatica, pneumatical.

[Edwin F Ashworth]

Ah, the old tripartite (body / soul / spirit) vs bipartite (body / soul-spirit) debate. The Bible seems to use both models - either, as best fits the occasion.

[Wizard of Oz]

.. so John we would have >>

Material: Richie McCaw is phenomenal
Mental: The game plan is noumenal
Spiritual: The All Blacks are pneumatical.

.. did I get ti right ???

Wallaby WoZ