Olympian
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈlɪm.pɪ.ən/
ipa: /əˈlɪm.pi.ən/
Forms: form: more Olympian
form: most Olympian
Etymology: From Late Middle English Olympyan, from Latin Olympius (“of or relating to Mount Olympus”) and its etymon Ancient Greek Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olŭ́mpĭos, “of or relating to Mount Olympus; living on Mount Olympus; Olympian”) + English -an (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’, or forming agent nouns). Ὀλῠ́μπῐος (Olŭ́mpĭos) is derived from Ὄλῠμπος (Ólŭmpos, “Mount Olympus”) (from Pre-Greek) + -ῐος (-ĭos, suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’).
Senses: examples: text: Namely, the Olympian Iove, to whom Antiochus [IV Epiphanes] conſecrated the Temple of God, 2 Mac[cabees] 6.2. and ſo he placed him, as it were, in Gods own cittadell, ver. 31. […] [T]he ſaid Olympian Iove was an Athenian Idoll, and not a Syrian one: which was Antiochus his native Country.
ref: 1648, John Diodati [i.e., Giovanni Diodati], “Annotations upon Daniel”, in R. G., transl., Pious and Learned Annotations upon the Holy Bible: Plainly Expounding the Most Difficult Places thereof: […], 2nd edition, London: […] Miles Flesher, for Nicholas Fussell, →OCLC, page 611, column 2:
text: Deſcend from Heav'n Urania, by that name / If rightly thou art call'd, whoſe Voice divine / Following, above th' Olympian Hill I ſoare, / Above the flight of Pegaſean wing.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 1–4:
text: Twelve Days were paſt, and now the dawning Light / The Gods had ſummon'd to th' Olympian Height.
ref: 1715, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “Book I”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 30, lines 640–641:
text: When the great pow'r that e'en the gods commands, / Who ſends the bolts from his [Jupiter's] almighty hands, / Summon'd th' immortals, who obey'd his call, / He thus addreſs'd them in th' olympian hall.
ref: 1740, Hesiod, “The Theogony, or the Generation of the Gods”, in [Thomas] Cooke, transl., The Works of Hesiod Translated from the Greek, 2nd edition, London: […] John Wilson for John Wood and Ch. Woodward, […], →OCLC, page 170, lines 603–606:
text: [O]ther light / Though it be quick and sharp enough to blight / The Olympian eagle's vision, is dark, / Dark as the parentage of chaos.
ref: 1818, John Keats, “Book II”, in Endymion: A Poetic Romance, London: […] T[homas] Miller, […] for Taylor and Hessey, […], →OCLC, page 96, lines 912–915:
text: […] Hetty was quite uneducated—a simple farmer's girl, to whom a gentleman with a white hand was dazzling as an Olympian god.
ref: 1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], “Hetty’s World”, in Adam Bede […], volume I, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, book first, pages 184–185:
synonyms: Olympic
glosses: Of or relating to Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece; or (Greek mythology) the Greek gods and goddesses who were believed to live there.
examples: text: Behold! your Saviour mounts th' Olympian plain, / In endleſs glories with his Sire to reign.
ref: 1768, Marcus Hieronymus Vida [i.e., Marco Girolamo Vida], “Book VI”, in J[ohn] Cranwell, transl., The Christiad, a Poem in Six Books; […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] J. Archdeacon, printer to the University [of Cambridge]; sold by J. Woodyer, and T. & J. Merrill […], →OCLC, page 383:
text: He has […] a certain high chested carriage of the shoulders, a lofty pose of the head, and the Olympian majesty with which a mane, or rather a huge wisp, of hazel colored hair is thrown back from an imposing brow, suggest Jupiter rather than Apollo.
ref: 1901–1903, [George] Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman. A Comedy and a Philosophy, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, →OCLC, Act I, page 8:
glosses: Resembling a Greek deity in some way.
Celestial, heavenly; also, godlike.
examples: text: The Olympian distance he so carefully cultivated was shot through with genuine exhaustion. Workaholic and overburdened with affairs of state, he had evidently written the letter in snached moments between other matters.
ref: 2011, Thomas Penn, “Richmond”, in Winter King: Henry VII and the Dawn of Tudor England, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, published March 2012, →ISBN, part 1 (Blood and Roses), page 51:
glosses: Resembling a Greek deity in some way.
Acting in a remote and superior manner; aloof.
Derived terms: Olympianism
Olympianize
Olympianly
Related terms: Olympic
Olympus