Promethean
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɹəˈmiː.θɪ.ən/
ipa: /pɹəˈmi.θi.ən/
ipa: /pɹoʊ-/
Forms: form: more Promethean
form: most Promethean
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 learn; to know, understand”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to mind; to think”) + *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”), in the sense of putting one’s mind to something)) + -εύς (-eús, suffix forming a masculine noun of the person concerned with a thing).
The noun is derived from the adjective.
Senses: examples: text: And, like Promethian life-begetting flame, / Pure bodies in the element should frame; / As to what part of heauen they hapt to stray, / There should they make another milkie way.
ref: 1596, Michael Drayton, “Mortimeriados. The Lamentable Ciuell Warres of Edward the Second and the Barrons.”, in J[ohn] Payne Collier, editor, Poems by Michael Drayton. […], London: […] J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Sons, […] [for the Roxburghe Club], published 1856, →OCLC, page 273:
text: And see how the Promethean liver grows / As vulture Grief devours it; see fresh shows / Revive woe's sense and multiply her soul; […]
ref: 1612, George Chapman, “Epicedium; or, A Funeral Song”, in Richard Herne Shepherd, editor, The Works of George Chapman: Poems and Minor Translations. […], London: Chatto and Windus, […], published 1875, →OCLC, page 174, column 1:
text: Theſe vultures in my Breſt / Gripe my Promethian heart both night and day; /
ref: 1635, Fra[ncis] Quarles, “Canto XIV. Cant[icle of Canticles] II. III.”, in Emblemes, London: […] G[eorge] M[iller] and sold at at Iohn Marriots shope […], →OCLC, book V, stanza 2, page 255:
text: More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.
ref: 2006 September, Edwin Black, “Power Struggle”, in Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives, New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →ISBN, page 11:
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Therefore Promethean poets with the coals / Of their most genial, more-than-human souls / In living verse, created men like these, / With shapes of Centaurs, Harpies, Lapithes, […]
ref: 1594, George Chapman, “The Shadow of Night”, in Richard Herne Shepherd, editor, The Works of George Chapman: Poems and Minor Translations. […], London: Chatto and Windus, […], published 1875, →OCLC, page 5, column 2:
text: [I]t vvould be helpfull to us if vve might borrovv ſuch autority as the Rhetoricians by patent may give us, vvith a kind of Promethean skill to ſhape and faſhion this outvvard man into the ſimilitude of a body, and ſet him viſible before us; imagining the inner man only as the ſoul.
ref: 1642 (indicated as 1641), John Milton, “That Prelatical Jurisdiction Opposeth the Reason and End of the Gospel and of State”, in The Reason of Church-governement Urg’d against Prelaty […], London: […] E[dward] G[riffin] for Iohn Rothwell, […], →OCLC, 2nd book, page 50:
glosses: 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.
glosses: 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.
Of a Romantic literary hero: defying traditional moral categories; rebelling against a larger order; persecuted but dauntless.
glosses: Of or pertaining to the promethea silkmoth (Callosamia promethea).
Derived terms: Prometheanism