phoenix
Part of speech: noun
verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: human-sciences
mysticism
mythology
philosophy
sciences
Etymology: From Old English and Old French fenix, from Medieval Latin phenix, from Latin phoenīx, from Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ (phoînix), from Egyptian b-n:nw*w-G31 (boinu, “grey heron”). Doublet of Bennu. The grey heron was venerated at Heliopolis and associated in Egypt with the cyclical renewal of life because the bird rises in flight at dawn and migrates back every year in the flood season to inhabit the Nile waters.
Inflected forms:
form: phoenix
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: phoenixes
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: phoenices
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: phenix
pos: noun
tags: alternative
US
uncommon
form: phœnix
pos: noun
tags: alternative
archaic
form: phoenixes
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: phoenixing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: phoenixed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: phoenixed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: phenix
pos: verb
tags: alternative
US
uncommon
form: phœnix
pos: verb
tags: alternative
archaic
Senses:
gloss: A mythological bird, said to be the only one of its kind, which lives for 500 years and then dies by burning to ashes on a pyre of its own making, ignited by the sun. It then arises anew from the ashes.
pos: noun
examples: burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood
gloss: Anything that is reborn after apparently being destroyed.
pos: noun
tags: figuratively
examples: Astronomers believe planets might form in this dead star's disk, like the mythical Phoenix rising up out of the ashes.
Lord Allerton was that modern phœnix, a young man, without a single objection.
Many of the legitimate nightclubs of today sprang like legalized phoenixes from the still-hot ashes of the speakeasies of prohibition days.
gloss: A mythological Chinese chimerical bird whose physical body symbolizes the six celestial bodies; a fenghuang.
pos: noun
tags: Chinese
gloss: A Greek silver coin used briefly from 1828 to 1832, divided into 100 lepta.
pos: noun
tags: historical
examples: The national currency, the phoenix, which had been established by Kapodistrias, was renamed after an ancient Greek coin, the drachma.
gloss: A marvelous person or thing.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
examples: He may not be a phœnix of cleverness in your sense; his profession is different; but it would be all the better for you to talk a little on his subjects.
gloss: A geometer moth of species Eulithis prunata.
pos: noun
gloss: To transfer assets from one company to another to dodge liability
pos: verb
tags: Australia
examples: Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association CEO John Winter said phoenixing has been "endemic" for decades.
The ATO defines iIllegal^([sic – meaning illegal]) phoenixing as when a new company is created to continue the business of a company that has been deliberately liquidated to avoid paying its debts, including taxes, creditors and employee entitlements.
Derived words: American small phoenix
bokkeveld phoenix
frosted phoenix
like a phoenix from the ashes
northwestern phoenix moth
phoenix aeolid
phoenix barb
phoenix billbug
phoenix bitter-pea
phoenix blackclock
phoenix damsel
phoenix devil
phoenix emerald moth
phoenix fly
phoenix iris (Hypochrosis iris
phoenixism
phoenixity
phoenix jumping spider
phoenixlike
phoenix palm
phoenix petrel
phoenix quaker
phoenix rising
phoenix sandperch
phoenix talussnail
phoenix tetra
Serbian phoenix flower
small phoenix
sphinx phoenix
Texas phoenix palm decline
Translations: