Wiktionary

Promethean

English

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WOTD – 11 April 2024

Etymology

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Heinrich Füger, Prometheus bringt der Menschheit das Feuer (Prometheus Brings Fire to Mankind, 1790 or c. 1817).
 
Something is said to be Promethean (sense 2) when it pertains to the promethea silkmoth (Callosamia promethea).

The adjective is derived from Prometheus (“demigod in Greek mythology”) +‎ -an (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ forming adjectives; and forming agent nouns).[1] 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 (manthánō, “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).[2]

The noun is derived from the adjective.[1]

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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Promethean (comparative more Promethean, superlative most Promethean)

  1. 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.
    • 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:
      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.
    • 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:
      And see how the Promethean liver grows / As vulture Grief devours it; see fresh shows / Revive woe's sense and multiply her soul; […]
      The spelling has been modernized.
    • 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:
      Theſe vultures in my Breſt / Gripe my Promethian heart both night and day; /
    • 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:
      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.
    1. Boldly creative, inventive, or original; skilful, talented; also, recklessly daring; audacious.
      • 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:
        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, […]
        The spelling has been modernized.
      • 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:
        [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.
    2. Of a Romantic literary hero: defying traditional moral categories; rebelling against a larger order; persecuted but dauntless.
  3. (rare) Of or pertaining to the promethea silkmoth (Callosamia promethea).

Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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Promethean (plural Prometheans)

  1. One with the qualities of Prometheus, or who acts in a Promethean manner (audaciously, creatively, etc.).
    • 1929, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Outline of the Fall”, in The Thing: Why I am a Catholic, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, published 1930, →OCLC, page 226:
      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.
  2. (also attributive, historical) 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.
    • 1839, Charles Darwin, chapter III, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 47:
      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.

Translations

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References

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 “Promethean, adj. and n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “Promethean, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “Prometheus, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “Prometheus, proper n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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