Speech...

What we know as Being, the first sequent upon The One, advanced a little outward, so to speak, then chose to go no further, turned inward again and comes to rest and is now the reality and hearth (ousia and hestia) of the universe.

Pressing (with the rough breathing) on the word for Being (on) we have the word for One (hen), an indication that in our very form of speech we tell, as far as may be, that Being (the weaker) is that which proceeds from (the stronger,) The One.

Thus both the thing that comes to be and Being itself are carriers of a copy, since they are outflows from the power of The Primal One:

the Soul sees and in its emotion tries to represent what it sees and breaks into speech ‘on—einai—ousia—hestia’ (Existent; Existence; Essence; Hestia or Hearth), sounds which labour to express the essential nature of the being produced by the travail of the utterer and so to represent, as far as sounds may, the origin of reality.



-- Enneads, V.5.5
Plotinus