Medusa

See also: medusa, médusa, Médusa, and Medúsa

Translingual

Proper noun

Medusa f

(archaic) A taxonomic genus within the phylum Cnidaria – diverse jellyfishes, now assigned to numerous other genera.

Hypernyms

(genus): Eukaryota - superkingdom; Animalia - kingdom; Cnidaria - phylum

References

Medusa at World Register of Marine Species

English

Medusa (Rubens), circa 1618

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), from μέδω (médō, “rule over”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /mɪˈdjuːsə/, /mɪˈdjuːzə/
(US) enPR: mĭ'dū'sə, mĭ'dū'zə IPA^(key): /məˈduːsə/
Rhymes: -uːsə
Hyphenation: Me‧dus‧a

Proper noun

Medusa

(Greek mythology) The youngest and only mortal of the three gorgon sisters, killed by Perseus.
Coordinate terms: Euryale, Stheno
- 1895, Adolf Furtwängler, Eugenie Strong (editor and translator), Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture: A Series of Essays on the History of Art, 2010, →ISBN, page 201,
  On an Attic vase of the middle of the fifth century the head of Medusa in the hand of Perseus is represented as that of a beautiful woman free from any distortion. This led us to conclude (supra, p. 158) that Medusa must have been so represented at Athens in the greater arts even previous to this vase, for the vase-painters never invent such bold novelties for themselves.
- 2000, Nannó Marinatos, The Goddess and the Warrior: The Naked Goddess and Mistress of the Animals in Early Greek Religion, page 62,
  It will be suggested here that the myth of Perseus, involving the decapitation of Medusa, is a narrative version of ritual.
- 2001, Dennis Berthold, Melville's Medusas, in Sanford E. Marovitz, Athanasios C. Christodoulou (editors), Melville "Among the nations": Proceedings of an International Conference, Volos, Greece, July 2-6, 1997,
  But their depictions of Perseus are remarkably different and demonstrate the ambiguity of Medusa that was seeping into Victorian iconography. In later, Roman versions of the myth, for example Ovid's Metamorphoses, Perseus slays the sea monster with his sword instead of using Medusa’s head to petrify the monster.

Derived terms

medusafish
medusahead
medusal

Translations

one of the Gorgons

Catalan: Medusa (ca)
Cherokee: ᎺᏚᏌ (medusa)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 美杜莎 (Měidùshā)
Dutch: Medusa (nl) f
Esperanto: Meduzo
Finnish: Meduusa
French: Méduse (fr) f
German: Medusa (de) f
Greek: Μέδουσα (el) f (Médousa)
Hungarian: Medusza
Inuktitut: ᒥᑑᓴ (mitoosa)
Japanese: メドゥーサ
Latin: Medūsa f
Lithuanian: Medūza f
Marathi: मेड्यूसा (meḍyūsā)
Polish: Meduza f
Portuguese: Medusa (pt) f
Russian: Меду́за (ru) f (Medúza)
Spanish: Medusa (es) f
Swahili: Medusa
Swedish: Medusa c
Turkish: Medusa

References

Medusa (mythology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

amused, sea mud

Italian

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), from μέδω (médō, “rule over”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /meˈdu.za/
Rhymes: -uza
Hyphenation: Me‧dù‧sa

Proper noun

Medusa f

(Greek mythology) Medusa

Anagrams

desuma

Japanese

Romanization

Medusa

Rōmaji transcription of メドゥサ

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), from μέδω (médō, “rule over”).

Pronunciation

(Classical) IPA^(key): /meˈduː.sa/, [mɛˈd̪uːs̠ä]

(Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /meˈdu.sa/, [meˈd̪uːs̬ä]

Proper noun

Medūsa f sg (genitive Medūsae); first declension

Medusa, gorgon

Declension

First-declension noun, singular only.

Case	Singular
Nominative	Medūsa
Genitive	Medūsae
Dative	Medūsae
Accusative	Medūsam
Ablative	Medūsā
Vocative	Medūsa

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), from μέδω (médō, “rule over”).

Proper noun

Medusa f

(Greek mythology) Medusa (creature with a petrifying gaze)

Spanish

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Μέδουσα (Médousa), from μέδω (médō, “rule over”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /meˈdusa/ [meˈð̞u.sa]
Rhymes: -usa
Syllabification: Me‧du‧sa

Proper noun

Medusa f

(Greek mythology) Medusa

Turkish

Proper noun

Medusa

(Greek mythology) Medusa