Compare Athanasius (de Sententiâ Dionysii, § 23):  “the mind creates the word, being manifested in it, and the word shews the mind, having originated therein.”  Tertullian (adv. Prax. vii.):  “You will say what is a word but a voice and sound of the mouth, and (as the Grammarians teach) air when struck against, intelligible to the ear, but for the rest a sort of void, empty, and incorporeal thing.”  Cf. Athan. (de Synodis, § 12):  ἀνυπόστατον.