Paphian
English
WOTD – 17 April 2011
Etymology
From Latin Paphius (from Ancient Greek Πάφος (Páphos, “Paphos”)) + English -an.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈpeɪfɪən/
Audio (UK) (file)
Adjective
Paphian (not comparable)
- (literary) Pertaining to love or sexual desire, especially when illicit. [from 16th c.]
- 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, Act III Scene 4:
- Cease admiration, sit to Cupid's feast, / The preparation to Paphian dalliance.
- 1873, Anonymous (William Potter), The Romance of Lust; or, Early Experiences, volume I, William Lazenby:
- I lay, as it were, in the Paphian bower of bliss, in a state of exquisite sensations quite impossible to describe.
- 1906, O. Henry, Man About Town:
- People passed, but they held me not. Paphian eyes rayed upon me, and left me unscathed.
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- Of or relating to Paphos, the mythical birthplace of the goddess of love on the island of Cyprus. [from 16th c.]
- 1715–1720, Homer; [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book III”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], OCLC 670734254:
- Then thus incensed, the Paphian queen replies: / "Obey the power from whom thy glories rise: / Should Venus leave thee, every charm must fly, / Fade from thy cheek, and languish in thy eye. / Cease to provoke me, lest I make thee more / The world’s aversion, than their love before; / Now the bright prize for which mankind engage, / Than, the sad victim, of the public rage."
- 1791, Homer; W[illiam] Cowper, transl., “[The Odyssey.] Book VIII.”, in The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], OCLC 779243096, lines 441–446, page 181:
- So ſaying, the might of Vulcan loos’d the ſnare, / And they, detain’d by thoſe coercive bands / No longer, from the couch upſtarting, flew, / Mars into Thrace, and to her Paphian home / The Queen of ſmiles, where deep in myrtle groves / Her incenſe-breathing altar ſtands embow’r’d.
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Translations
pertaining to love or sexual desire, especially when illicit
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of or relating to Paphos
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Noun
Paphian (plural Paphians)
- (literary) A prostitute.
- 1824, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto the Eleventh, XXX,
- They reach'd the hotel: forth stream'd from the front door / A tide of well-clad waiters, and around / The mob stood, and as usual several score / Of those pedestrian Paphians who abound / In decent London when the daylight's o'er; / Commodious but immoral, they are found / Useful, like Malthus, in promoting marriage.
- 1980, Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer, ch. 9:
- A smile I had learned to know elsewhere lurked at one corner of my paphian's mouth.
- 1824, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto the Eleventh, XXX,
- A resident of Paphos.
- 1854, Athenaeus of Naucratis, Charles Duke Yonge (translator), The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned, Volume II, page 777,
- Then there is the mastus. Apollodorus the Cyrenæan, as Pamphilus says, states that this is a name given to drinking-cups by the Paphians.
- 1854, Athenaeus of Naucratis, Charles Duke Yonge (translator), The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned, Volume II, page 777,
Translations
(literary) a prostitute
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resident of Paphos
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