lethe
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English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Latin Lēthē, from Ancient Greek Λήθη (Lḗthē, “forgetfulness”).
Noun
lethe (usually uncountable, plural lethes)
- Forgetfulness of the past; oblivion.
- c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: ”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 197:
- So in the Lethe of thy angry ſoule,
Thou drowne the ſad remembrance of thoſe wrongs,
Which thou ſuppoſest I haue done to thee.
- Dissimulation.
- c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 351:
- Till that the conquering Wine hath ſteep't our ſenſe,
In ſoft and delicate Lethe.
- 1980, Joseph J. Kockelmans, On Heidegger and Language, Northwestern University Press, →ISBN, page 241:
- What does it mean to say that the stream of silence originates in lethe? It means, above all, that the stream has its source (Quelle) in that which has not yet been said and which must remain unsaid: the "unsaid."
Derived terms
Related terms
Etymology 2
Possibly influenced by Latin lētum (“killing”).
Noun
lethe (usually uncountable, plural lethes)
- (obsolete, rare) Death.
- 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 120, line 219:
- Pardon me Iulius, here was't thou bay'd braue Hart,
Heere did'ſt thou fall, and heere thy Hunters ſtand
Sign'd in thy Spoyle, and Crimſon'd in thy Lethee.
References
- Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition (2003)
- “lethe”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “lethe”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Anagrams
Middle English
Noun
lethe (plural lethes)
- Alternative form of lyth
Old Irish
Noun
lethe
- Alternative spelling of leithe
Mutation
| Old Irish mutation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Radical | Lenition | Nasalization |
| lethe also llethe after a proclitic |
lethe pronounced with /l(ʲ)-/ |
unchanged |
| Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. | ||