Plato, Cratylus, section 435d

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[435d] But now answer the next question. What is the function of names, and what good do they accomplish?

Cratylus
I think, Socrates, their function is to instruct, and this is the simple truth, that he who knows the names knows also the things named.

Socrates
I suppose, Cratylus, you mean that when anyone knows the nature of the name—and its nature is that of the thing—he will know the thing also,

Plato. Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vol. 12 translated by Harold N. Fowler. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921.

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