halcyon

Use this forum to suggest Good Words for Professor Beard.
KatyBr
Wordmaster
Posts: 959
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:28 pm

halcyon

Postby KatyBr » Thu Feb 09, 2006 3:07 am

hal·cy·on (hls-n)
n.
1. A kingfisher, especially one of the genus Halcyon.
2. A fabled bird, identified with the kingfisher, that was supposed to have had the power to calm the wind and the waves while it nested on the sea during the winter solstice.
adj.
1. Calm and peaceful; tranquil.
2. Prosperous; golden: halcyon years.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Middle English alcioun, from Latin alcyn, halcyn, from Greek halkun, a mythical bird, kingfisher, alteration (influenced by hals, salt, sea, and kun, conceiving) of alkun.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words AntonymsNoun 1. Halcyon - (Greek mythology) a woman who was turned into a kingfisher
Alcyone
Greek mythology - the mythology of the ancient Greeks
mythical being - an imaginary being of myth or fable
2. Halcyon - a large kingfisher widely distributed in warmer parts of the Old World
genus Halcyon
bird genus - a genus of birds
Alcedinidae, family Alcedinidae - kingfishers
3. halcyon - a mythical bird said to breed at the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea and to have the power of calming the winds and waves
mythical being - an imaginary being of myth or fable
Adj. 1. halcyon - idyllically calm and peaceful; suggesting happy tranquillity; "a halcyon atmosphere"
peaceful - not disturbed by strife or turmoil or war; "a peaceful nation"; "peaceful times"; "a far from peaceful Christmas"; "peaceful sleep"
2. halcyon - marked by peace and prosperity; "a golden era"; "the halcyon days of the clipper trade"
golden, prosperous
happy - enjoying or showing or marked by joy or pleasure or good fortune; "a happy smile"; "spent many happy days on the beach"; "a happy marriage"
from www.freedictionary.com
Halcyon always reminds me of salad days.

Kt

Brazilian dude
Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 1464
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil

Postby Brazilian dude » Thu Feb 09, 2006 6:17 am

Halcyon reminds me of Alcione.

Brazilian dude
Languages rule!

KatyBr
Wordmaster
Posts: 959
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:28 pm

Postby KatyBr » Thu Feb 09, 2006 8:49 am

I'm wondering how they got my pictures? Not anymore understand, but in my 30's.

Kt

Flaminius
Lexiterian
Posts: 408
Joined: Fri Feb 18, 2005 4:36 am

Postby Flaminius » Thu Feb 09, 2006 11:31 am

Alcione....

I always thought it was Alcinoe. That's how studying foreign names in katakana ends up sometimes.

Flma

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Postby Stargzer » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:44 pm

Halcyon, 2005/02/08--how quickly time passes. :wink:
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

KatyBr
Wordmaster
Posts: 959
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:28 pm

Postby KatyBr » Thu Feb 09, 2006 4:47 pm

Then the search function is just simply not working.

Kt

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Postby Stargzer » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:29 pm

I used the Good Word Dictionary link to search under "H" for it.
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

KatyBr
Wordmaster
Posts: 959
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:28 pm

Postby KatyBr » Thu Feb 09, 2006 5:32 pm

I just searched the way Tm said to

Kt
nevermind

tcward
Wordmaster
Posts: 789
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: The Old North State

Postby tcward » Thu Feb 09, 2006 6:36 pm

Katy, the search function is working... but what this shows is that this Good Word was never posted as such in the Good Word Discussions thread.

-Tim

KatyBr
Wordmaster
Posts: 959
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:28 pm

Postby KatyBr » Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:10 am

I've given up using the dictionaries on this sites in any incarnation (no matter what I'm searching for), they are way too click heavy, I like one-stop-shopping.

Kt

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Postby Stargzer » Mon Feb 27, 2006 5:11 pm

A worthwhile purchase this year was Jeffrey Kacirk's Forgotten English A 365-Day Calendar of Vanishing Vocabulary and Folklore for 2006. Skipping ahead to Monday, December 18 I find:
Halcyon-days
Halcyon is the Greek for a kingfisher, compounded of hals, the sea, and kuo, to brood on. The ancient Sicilians believed that the kingfisher laid its eggs and incubated for fourteen days, before the winter solstice, on the surface of the sea.
-Ebenezer Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1887

A term applied by the ancients to the seven days which immediately precede and follow the shortest day, from the circumstance that the halcyon, or kingfisher, selected that period for incubation, and they believed that on that account, the weather was always remarkably quiet about that time. Hence the pharase halcyon-days has passed into a proverb as denoting a time of peace and tranquility.
--T. Ellwood Zell's Popular Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Language, 1871
It's a great resource for unusual words, but taking words from there to use as suggested GWOTDs is akin to shooting waterfowl over a baited field: it's just not sportsmanlike. :wink: But if you can still find it in the sale bin or a discount store, it's well worth the discounted price.
Last edited by Stargzer on Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

KatyBr
Wordmaster
Posts: 959
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:28 pm

Postby KatyBr » Mon Feb 27, 2006 8:14 pm

Gee Larry, not another dig? I got it from using it, I said it to someone and thought it'd make a good word for WOTD. my calendar has numbers not words on it.

Kt
I do belong to several other WOTD lists tho' and I do, actually have a pretty decent vocabulary, a memory lexicon of available words that might just surprise you. and here you are still laboring under your fine line.

tcward
Wordmaster
Posts: 789
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: The Old North State

Postby tcward » Tue Feb 28, 2006 5:46 pm

Katy, I read Larry's response not as a personal dig on you, but rather as a gentle reminder (in his own special way)... a "let those who have ears to hear" kind of thing...

-Tim

Andrew Dalby
Junior Lexiterian
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Nov 04, 2005 10:18 am
Location: France
Contact:

Postby Andrew Dalby » Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:00 am

Alcione....

I always thought it was Alcinoe. That's how studying foreign names in katakana ends up sometimes.

Flma
Alcinoe existed (mythologically speaking) as well. Maybe they were best friends.

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Postby Stargzer » Wed Mar 01, 2006 11:18 am

Gee Larry, not another dig? I got it from using it, I said it to someone and thought it'd make a good word for WOTD. my calendar has numbers not words on it.

Kt
I do belong to several other WOTD lists tho' and I do, actually have a pretty decent vocabulary, a memory lexicon of available words that might just surprise you. and here you are still laboring under your fine line.
Katy, you need to grow a thicker skin. This was not a dig. It was some further info on the etymology of the word from a daily calendar I have, with a note that it has a lot of good words that I wish I could suggest but feel compelled not to, at least this year. Some examples:
03/01
toesmithing -- Dancing. Theater Slang. -Maurice Weseen's A Dictionary of American Slang, 1934

03/02
Englishable -- That may be rendered into English. -John Ogilvie's Comprehensive ENglish Dictionary, 1865

03/04-05
quaker's bargain -- A yea-or-nay bargain; a take-it-or-leave-it transaction. -John Farmer and W. E. Henley's Slang and its Analogues, 1890-1904
[This one reminds me of a Hobson's Choice, which hasn't been suggested on this board yet]

03/20
curlaff -- The shock felt in bathing when one first plunges into the cold water -John Jamieson's Etymological Scottish Dictionary, 1808

Curgloft, panic-stricken; Banffshire. -Alexander Warrack's Scots Dialect Dictionary, 1911

03/25-26
Rhetoricate -- To play the actor. -Rev. John Boag's Imperial Lexicon, C. 1850

03/30
nullifidian -- Of no honestie; of no religion. -John Bullokar's An English Expositor, 1616

-- One of no faith or religion; a sceptic in matters of religion. -Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1908

03/31
bog-oranges -- Potatoes. A phrase perhaps derived from the term 'Irish fruit,' which by some peculiarity has been applied to potatoes, for even the most ignorant Cockney could hardly believe that potatoes grow in a bog. As, however, the majority of the lower classes of London do believe that potatoes were indigenous to, and were first brought from the soil of Irelenad, . . . they may even believe that potatoes are actually bog-oranges. -John Camden Hotten's Slang Dictionary, 1887

04/11
whelm -- To cover with something which cannot be thrown off, generallyl applied to water; to throw upon something so as to cover or bury it; to turn the open side of a vessel downwards. [From] Saxon abwhilsan. -Daniel Fenning's Royal English Dictionary, 1775

04/12
Welsh ambassador -- The cuckoo. "Welsh ambassador" means that the bird announces the migration of Welsh labourers into England for summer employment. -Ebenezer Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898

04/13
vocabulation --The use or choice of words. -William Craigie's New English Dictionary, 1928

Birthday of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
As the third American president one wrote to Englishman John Denison, "It is much to be wished that the publication of the county dialects of England should go on. It will restore to us our language in all shades of variation. It will incorporate into the present one all the riches of our ancient dialects; . . . I set equal value on the beautiful engraftments we have borrowed from Greece and Rome, and I am a friend to the encouragement of judicious neology. A language cannot be too rich."
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee


Return to “Good Word Suggestions”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Semrush [Bot] and 4 guests