Tartarus

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English

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Etymology

From Latin Tartarus, from Ancient Greek Τάρταρος (Tártaros).

Pronunciation

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Proper noun

Tartarus

  1. (Greek mythology, Roman mythology) A dark and gloomy part of the realm of Hades, reserved for the damned and the wicked, such as the Titans; an equivalent of hell in Greek and Roman mythology.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. , London: ">…] , and are to be sold by Peter Parker ; nd by Robert Boulter ; nd Matthias Walker, , →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: , London: Basil Montagu Pickering , 1873, →OCLC, lines 50–55:
      them with Fire and hoſtile Arms / Fearleſs aſſault, and to the brow of Heav'n / Purſuing, drive them out from God and bliſs, / Into thir place of puniſhment, the Gulf / Of Tartarus, which ready opens wide / His fiery Chaos to receave thir fall.
  2. (figurative) Any hellish place; a dark gloomy chasm or pit.
    • 1886 October – 1887 January, H Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
      We lay there hour after hour in terror and misery of mind so deep that I will not attempt to describe it, and listened to the wild storm-voices of that Tartarus, as, set to the deep undertone of the spur opposite against which the wind hummed like some awful harp, they called to each other from precipice to precipice.
    • 1890, William Booth, “Round the slums of New York”, in In Darkest England and the Way Out, page 161:
      After arranging a rendezvous, we separate. Mattie and Liz go off in one direction, and Em and I in another. From this our progress seems like a descent into Tartarus. Em pauses before a miserable-looking saloon, pushes open the low, swinging door, and we go in.

Translations

Latin

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Ancient Greek Τάρταρος (Tártaros).

View of the river

Alternative forms

Proper noun

Tartarus m sg (genitive Tartarī); second declension

  1. (Greek mythology, Roman mythology) Tartarus (hell, part of the underworld)
  2. A river of Venetia that used to flow into the Adriatic Sea, now called Tartaro.
Declension

Second-declension noun, singular only.

singular
nominative Tartarus
genitive Tartarī
dative Tartarō
accusative Tartarum
ablative Tartarō
vocative Tartare
Descendants
  • Catalan: Tàrtar
  • English: Tartarus
  • French: Tartare

Etymology 2

Noun

Tartarus m (genitive Tartarī, feminine Tartara); second declension

  1. alternative form of Tatarus (Tatar)
Declension

First/second-declension adjective.

References

  • Tartarus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • Tartarus”, in William Smith, editor (1854, 1857), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, volume 1 & 2, London: Walton and Maberly
  • Tartarus in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.