Influence of the meanings of the greek concept of “’apet’h” on the meanings of the latin concept of “virtus” as one of the reasons for the polysemanticity of the concept of “virtual” in the xx-xxi centuries

The author considers how the influence of the meanings of the Greek concept “άρετή” on the semantics of the Latin concept “virtus” could cause the concept of “virtual” acquire such meanings as “being something in essence, real” (and not formally); “actual, real”. One of the Greek words translated into Latin as “virtus” in antiquity and the Middle Ages, was the word “άρετή”. As a result of such a translation, the meanings of the word “άρετή” and the philosophical (first of all, Platonic) meanings of the concept of “άρετή” enriched the meanings of the concept “virtus”. It is most likely that the first meaning of the concept of “virtual”, that is, “being something in essence, really” (and not formally), comes from the meaning “in essence” of the English word “virtually”, connected with one of the aspects of Plato’s interpretations of “άρετή” - άρετή as the essence of a thing (Greek “ούσία”, Latin “essentia”).Probably, the concept “virtual” acquired the meaning of “ factual, real “ through the the mediation of the word “virtually” (in its meaning “in fact, factually”), from the word “actually”, which, on the one hand, means “ in fact, indeed, really”, and on the other, is used as a synonym for “virtually”. It is possible that the occurrence of meanings “factual, real” of the concept “virtual” has been reinforced by the connection of the word “virtus” and its derivatives with the above mentioned “Platonic” meaning of the concept of “virtual”, that is the meaning “being something in essence”, which is in some respects close to the meaning “factual, real”.