omphalos
Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word omphalos. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word omphalos, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say omphalos in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word omphalos you have here. The definition of the word omphalos will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofomphalos, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Ancient Greek ὀμφαλός (omphalós, “navel”). Doublet of navel.
Pronunciation
Noun
omphalos (plural omphaloi)
- An ancient religious stone artifact, or baetylus, used to denote the direction of the "center" of the world.
- The theological proposition that the world was created with certain indicia of a history which had not actually occurred (such as the humans who had never been connected to umbilical cords being created with navels).
- The navel.
- A raised central point; a boss.
- The center or hub.
- 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses, page 17:
- —Rather bleak in wintertime, I should say. Martello you call it? —Billy Pitt had them built, Buck Mulligan said, when the French were on the sea. But ours is the omphalos.
- 2014, T.C. Boyle, The Collected Stories Of T.Coraghessan Boyle:
- Here I was, embosomed in the very nave, the very omphalos of furtive femininity—a prize patron of the women's restaurant, a member, privy to its innermost secrets.
- 2015, Glanville Downey, History of Antioch, page 183:
- The place in which this statue stood, Malalas writes, was called “the omphalos of the city.”
References
- ^ “omphalos”, in OED Online
, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
