halcyon

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See also: Halcyon

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English Alceoun, from Latin halcyōn, alcyōn (kingfisher), from Ancient Greek ἀλκυών (alkuṓn).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈhælsi.ən/
  • (obsolete) IPA(key): /ˈhælʃən/, /ˈhælʃi.ən/[1]
  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

halcyon (plural halcyons)

  1. (poetic) A kingfisher whose nesting by the sea was said, in classical mythology, to cause the Gods to restrain the wind and waves.
    1. The dead body of such a bird, said in Tudor times to act as a weather vane when hung from a beam.
  2. A tropical kingfisher of the genus Halcyon, such as the sacred kingfisher (Halcyon sancta) of Australia.

Translations

Adjective

halcyon (comparative more halcyon, superlative most halcyon)

  1. Pertaining to the halcyon or kingfisher.
  2. (figurative) Calm, undisturbed, peaceful, serene.
    Synonyms: at peace, blissful, calm, peaceful, prelapsarian, relaxed, serene; see also Thesaurus:quiet
    • 1787, Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers No. 30:
      Reflections of this kind may have trifling weight with men who hope to see realized in America the halcyon scenes of the poetic or fabulous age.
    • 1842, Thomas De Quincey, Cicero:
      Deep, halcyon repose.
    • 1919, H.P. Lovecraft, The City:
      I had wander’d in rapture beneath them, and bask’d in the Halcyon clime.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      The huge square box, parquet-floored and high-ceilinged, had been arranged to display a suite of bedroom furniture designed and made in the halcyon days of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, when modish taste was just due to go clean out of fashion for the best part of the next hundred years.

Derived terms

Translations

References

  1. ^ Jespersen, Otto (1909) A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)‎, volumes I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 12.22, page 342.

Latin

halcyōn (kingfisher)

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἀλκυών (alkuṓn, kingfisher).

Pronunciation

Noun

halcyōn f (genitive halcyonis); third declension

  1. The halcyon; kingfisher.

Declension

Third-declension noun.

singular plural
nominative halcyōn halcyonēs
genitive halcyonis halcyonum
dative halcyonī halcyonibus
accusative halcyonem halcyonēs
ablative halcyone halcyonibus
vocative halcyōn halcyonēs

Synonyms