Promethean
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: derivation
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.
Base: Prometheus
Affixes: -an
Inflected forms:
form: more Promethean
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most Promethean
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: Prometheans
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: 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.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
And see how the Promethean liver grows / As vulture Grief devours it; see fresh shows / Revive woe's sense and multiply her soul; […]
Theſe vultures in my Breſt / Gripe my Promethian heart both night and day; /
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.
gloss: 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.
pos: adj
examples: 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, […]
[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.
gloss: 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.
pos: adj
gloss: Of or pertaining to the promethea silkmoth (Callosamia promethea).
pos: adj
tags: rare
gloss: One with the qualities of Prometheus, or who acts in a Promethean manner (audaciously, creatively, etc.).
pos: noun
examples: The Fall is a view of life. It is not only the only enlightening, but the only encouraging view of life. It holds, as against the only real alternative philosophies, those of the Buddhist or the Pessimist or the Promethean.
gloss: 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 surface.
pos: noun
tags: also
attributive
historical
examples: I carried with me some promethean matches, which I ignited by biting; it was thought so wonderful that a man should strike fire with his teeth, that it was usual to collect the whole family to see it: I was once offered a dollar for a single one.
Derived words: Prometheanism
Translations:
lang: Czech
word: prométheovský
lang: Dutch
word: prometheïsch
lang: Finnish
word: Prometheuksen
lang: Finnish
word: prometeaaninen
lang: French
word: prométhéen
lang: Italian
word: prometeico
lang: Macedonian
word: прометејски
roman: prometejski
lang: Spanish
word: prometeico
lang: Swedish
word: prometeisk
lang: Welsh
word: Prometheaidd