Promethean
Pronunciation: /pɹəˈmiː.θɪ.ən/
The English word “Promethean” has 6 meanings listed here.
adjective
- Of or pertaining to Prometheus, a demigod in Greek mythology who created mortals from clay and stole fire from Zeus to give to them, for which Zeus punished him by chaining him to a rock and having an eagle feed on his liver which grew back each night; he was later rescued by Heracles.
- Boldly creative, inventive, or original; skilful, talented; also, recklessly daring; audacious.
- Of a Romantic literary hero: defying traditional moral categories; rebelling against a larger order; persecuted but dauntless.
- Of or pertaining to the promethea silkmoth (Callosamia promethea).
noun
- One with the qualities of Prometheus, or who acts in a Promethean manner (audaciously, creatively, etc.).
- A kind of lucifer match consisting of a glass tube containing sulfuric acid coated on the outside with a flammable mixture of potassium chlorate and sugar and wrapped in paper rolls; the match was lit by crushing the tube with pliers, causing the acid to react with and ignite the flammable components. This type of match was superseded by the friction match which was lit by rubbing against a rough…
Etymology
The adjective is derived from Prometheus (“demigod in Greek mythology”) + -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming agent nouns). Prometheus is a learned borrowing from Latin Promētheus, and from its etymon Ancient Greek Προμηθεύς (Promētheús), from προμηθής (promēthḗs, “having forethought”) (from προ- (pro-, prefix meaning ‘before’) + μᾰνθᾰ́νω (mănthắnō, “to…
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.