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Circean poison. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
Circean poison, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
Circean poison in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
After the Greek mythological figure of Circe, who (in the Odyssey) tempted men to excess before turning them into pigs.
Noun
Circean poison (uncountable)
- A poison or potion that changes the body but not the mind.
1926, Essays in memory of Barrett Wendell, page 77:And the riven Tree in the West withered; and the broken Car was changed by the Circean poison of the golden plumes into a two-natured monster, half-bird, half-beast — a mockery of the holy Griffin.
- Anything magically (and fatally) captivating, such as a potion or applause.
- 1834, Thomas Carlyle, "The Death of Edward Irving," essay from Fraser's Magazine 61 (1834):
- O foulest Circean draught, thou poison of Popular Applause! madness is in thee, and death; thy end is Bedlam and the Grave.
1878, John Henry Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, page 242:"Is not this herd," he continues, "worse than Circean poison?"
1908, John Ruskin, St. Mark's Rest: The History of Venice Written for the Help of the Few ..., page 236:So soon the worm that dies not is also upon him—in its fang Circean poison to make the victim one with his plague...
References