Pronunciations (2)
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/pɹəˈmiː.θɪ.ən/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/pɹəˈmi.θi.ən/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
Adjective
Of or pertaining to Prometheus, a demigod in Greek mythology who created mortals from clay and stole fire from Zeus to give to them, for which Zeus punished him by chaining him to a rock and having an eagle feed on his liver which grew back each night; he was later rescued by Heracles.
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More examples (1)
And, like Promethian life-begetting flame, / Pure bodies in the element should frame; / As to what part of heauen they hapt to stray, / There should they make another milkie way.
And see how the Promethean liver grows / As vulture Grief devours it; see fresh shows / Revive woe's sense and multiply her soul; […]
Theſe vultures in my Breſt / Gripe my Promethian heart both night and day; /
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More than a mere source of Promethean sustenance to thwart the cold and cook one's meat, wood was quite simply mankind's first industrial and manufacturing fuel.
Of or pertaining to Prometheus, a demigod in Greek mythology who created mortals from clay and stole fire from Zeus to give to them, for which Zeus punished him by chaining him to a rock and having an eagle feed on his liver which grew back each night; he was later rescued by Heracles. Boldly creative, inventive, or original; skilful, talented; also, recklessly daring; audacious.
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Therefore Promethean poets with the coals / Of their most genial, more-than-human souls / In living verse, created men like these, / With shapes of Centaurs, Harpies, Lapithes, […]
[I]t vvould be helpfull to us if vve might borrovv ſuch autority as the Rhetoricians by patent may give us, vvith a kind of Promethean skill to ſhape and faſhion this outvvard man into the ſimilitude of a body, and ſet him viſible before us; imagining the inner man only as the ſoul.
The culture of the proletariat must borrow nothing from the tradition of the privileged classes but must make a Promethean effort to create ex nihilo, paying attention to its own needs and to nothing else whatever.
Of or pertaining to Prometheus, a demigod in Greek mythology who created mortals from clay and stole fire from Zeus to give to them, for which Zeus punished him by chaining him to a rock and having an eagle feed on his liver which grew back each night; he was later rescued by Heracles. Of a Romantic literary hero: defying traditional moral categories; rebelling against a larger order; persecuted but dauntless.
Of or pertaining to the promethea silkmoth (Callosamia promethea).
Usage- Rare
Noun
One with the qualities of Prometheus, or who acts in a Promethean manner (audaciously, creatively, etc.).
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The Fall is a view of life. It is not only the only enlightening, but the only encouraging view of life. It holds, as against the only real alternative philosophies, those of the Buddhist or the Pessimist or the Promethean.
A kind of lucifer match consisting of a glass tube containing sulfuric acid coated on the outside with a flammable mixture of potassium chlorate and sugar and wrapped in paper rolls; the match was lit by crushing the tube with pliers, causing the acid to react with and ignite the flammable components. This type of match was superseded by the friction match which was lit by rubbing against a rough surface.
Usage- also
- attributive
- Historical
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More examples (1)
I carried with me some promethean matches, which I ignited by biting; it was thought so wonderful that a man should strike fire with his teeth, that it was usual to collect the whole family to see it: I was once offered a dollar for a single one.