Phoenixとは

意味・読み方・使い方

別の表記

• phenix (古風な用法)
• phœnix (廃れた用法)

語源

From 古期英語 and Old French fenix, from Medieval Latin phenix, from Latin phoenīx, from Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ (phoînix), from Egyptian bnw (boinu, “grey heron”). The grey heron was venerated at Heliopolis and associated in Egypt with the cyclical renewal of life because the bird rises in flight at dawn and migrates back every year in the flood season to inhabit the Nile waters.^[1]

発音

• enPR: fē'nĭks, IPA^(key): /ˈfiːnɪks/
• 韻: -iːnɪks

名詞

phoenix (複数形 phoenix または phoenixes または phoenices)

1. (mythology) A mythological bird, said to be the only one of its kind, which lives for 500 years and then dies by burning to ashes on a pyre of its own making, ignited by the sun. It then arises anew from the ashes.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 19”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. Neuer before Imprinted, London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, OCLC 216596634:

     burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood

2. (figuratively) Anything that is reborn after apparently being destroyed.

   Astronomers believe planets might form in this dead star's disk, like the mythical Phoenix rising up out of the ashes.

3. (Chinese mythology) A mythological Chinese chimerical bird whose physical body symbolizes the six celestial bodies; a fenghuang.
4. (historical) A Greek silver coin used briefly from 1828 to 1832, divided into 100 lepta.

Further reading

• phoenix (mythology) on Wikipedia.
• fenghuang on Wikipedia.
• phoenix (currency) on Wikipedia.

参照