phoenix

phoenix

See also: Phoenix, Phönix, phœnix, and Phœnix

English

Phoenix (1)

Stone bas-relief with phoenixes (3), Eastern Han dynasty, Tokyo National Museum

Phoenix (Greek coin)

Alternative forms

• phenix (archaic)
• phœnix (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old English 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]

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːnɪks

Noun

phoenix (plural phoenix or phoenixes or 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. […], 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.

   • 1838 (date written)​, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], published 1842, OCLC 1000392275, page 17:

     Lord Allerton was that modern phœnix, a young man, without a single objection.

   • 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 90:

     Many of the legitimate nightclubs of today sprang like legalized phoenixes from the still-hot ashes of the speakeasies of prohibition days.

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.
   • 2019, Roderick Beaton, Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation, Penguin 2020, p. 116:

     The national currency, the phoenix, which had been established by Kapodistrias, was renamed after an ancient Greek coin, the drachma.

5. (obsolete) A marvelous person or thing.
   • 1871–1872, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter LVIII, in Middlemarch […], volume III, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, OCLC 948783829, book VI, page 282:

     He may not be a phœnix of cleverness in your sense; his profession is different; but it would be all the better for you to talk a little on his subjects.

Translations

mythological bird

Afrikaans: feniks (af), feniksvoël (af) Albanian: feniks (sq) Arabic: فِينِيكْس‎ m (fīnīks), فُقْنُس‎ m (fuqnus), عَنْقَاء‎ f (ʿanqāʾ), فِينِيق‎ (fīnīq) Armenian: փյունիկ (hy) (pʿyunik) Bulgarian: фе́никс m (féniks) Catalan: fènix m Cherokee: ᏧᎴᎯᏌᏅᎯ (tsulehisanvhi) Chinese: Mandarin: 鳳凰／凤凰 (zh) (fènghuáng) (Chinese fenghuang), 不死鳥／不死鸟 (zh) (Western) Danish: føniks c Dutch: feniks (nl) m Egyptian: (bnw) Esperanto: fenikso Faroese: føniks m Finnish: feeniks (fi) French: phénix (fr) m Galician: fénix (gl) f Georgian: ფენიქსი (peniksi) Old Georgian: ფჳნიქსი (pwiniksi) German: Phönix (de) m Greek: φοίνικας (el) m (foínikas) Ancient: φοῖνιξ m (phoînix) Hebrew: עוֹף חוֹל‎ (he) m ('of ḥol) Hindi: अमरपक्षी (amarpakṣī), अमर-पक्षी m (amar-pakṣī), ककनूँ m (kaknū̃), ककनू (hi) m (kaknū), हुमा (hi) m (humā), सीमुर्ग (hi) m (sīmurg) Hungarian: főnix (hu), főnixmadár (hu) Icelandic: fönix m Ido: fenixo (io) Italian: fenice (it) f Japanese: 不死鳥 (fushichō), 火の鳥 (hi no tori), 鳳凰 (ja) (ほうおう, hōō), フェニックス (fenikkusu) Korean: 불사조 (bulsajo), 불새 (bulsae) Kumyk: бийдаякъ (biydayaq) Lao: ນົກຟີນິກຊ໌ (nok fī nik sa) Latvian: fēnikss Lithuanian: feniksas m Lü: ᦷᦓᧅᦝᦲᦓᦲᧅ (nokfiiniik) Macedonian: фе́никс m (féniks) Norwegian: Bokmål: føniks (no) m Nynorsk: føniks m Persian: ققنس‎ (qaqnos), ققنوس‎ (fa) (qoqnūs) Polish: feniks (pl) m anim Portuguese: fênix (pt) f (Brazil), fénix (pt) f (Portugal) Romanian: fenix (ro) m Russian: фе́никс (ru) m (féniks), жар-пти́ца (ru) f (žar-ptíca) Scottish Gaelic: ainneamhag f Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: фе́никс m, жа̑р-пти̏ца f Roman: féniks (sh) m, žȃr-ptȉca (sh) f Slovak: fénix (sk) m Slovene: feniks (sl) m Spanish: fénix (es) m, fénice m Swedish: fenix (sv) c Tagalog: peniks Thai: นกฟีนิกซ์ Turkish: anka (tr), zümrüdüanka (tr), simurg, tuğrul (tr), konrul Urdu: ققنس‎ (ur) m (qaqnus) Uyghur: سۇمۇرغ‎ (sumurgh) Volapük: fönig (vo) Welsh: ffenics m Zhuang: funghvuengz

anything reborn after apparently being destroyed

Afrikaans: feniks (af) Dutch: feniks (nl) m Greek: φοίνικας (el) m (foínikas) Japanese: 不死鳥 (ふしちょう, fushichō) Korean: 불사조(不死鳥) (bulsajo) Macedonian: фе́никс m (féniks) Norwegian: Bokmål: føniks (no) m Nynorsk: føniks m Portuguese: fênix (pt) f (Brazil), fénix (pt) f (Portugal) Russian: фе́никс (ru) m (féniks) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: фе́никс m Roman: féniks (sh) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Indonesian: (please verify) phoenix Persian: (please verify) سیمرغ‎ (fa) (simorğ)

Verb

phoenix (third-person singular simple present phoenixes, present participle phoenixing, simple past and past participle phoenixed)

1. (Australia) To transfer assets from one company to another to dodge liability
   • 2019 December 17, Noel Gladstone; Carrie Fellner, “Small business flattened by 'dodgy' builders in phoenixing epidemic”, in The Sydney Morning Herald‎:

     Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association CEO John Winter said phoenixing has been "endemic" for decades.

   • 2020 September 24, Anne Davies, “Phoenixing: how unscrupulous dealers rise debt-free from the ashes of failed companies”, in The Sydney Morning Herald‎:

     The ATO defines iIllegal^{[sic – meaning illegal]} phoenixing as when a new company is created to continue the business of a company that has been deliberately liquidated to avoid paying its debts, including taxes, creditors and employee entitlements.

References

1. Maria Carmela Betrò, Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt (Abbeville, 1996), 108.

Further reading

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

---

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈpʰoe̯.niːks/, [ˈpʰoe̯niːks̠]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfe.niks/, [ˈfɛːniks]

Noun

phoenīx f (genitive phoenīcis); third declension

1. phoenix

Declension

Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	phoenīx	phoenīcēs
Genitive	phoenīcis	phoenīcium
Dative	phoenīcī	phoenīcibus
Accusative	phoenīcem	phoenīcēs phoenīcīs
Ablative	phoenīce	phoenīcibus
Vocative	phoenīx	phoenīcēs

Noun

phoenīx m (genitive phoenīcis); third declension

1. Phoenician

Declension

Third-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	phoenīx	phoenīcēs
Genitive	phoenīcis	phoenīcum
Dative	phoenīcī	phoenīcibus
Accusative	phoenīcem	phoenīcēs
Ablative	phoenīce	phoenīcibus
Vocative	phoenīx	phoenīcēs

Adjective

phoenīx (genitive phoenīcis); third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem)

1. Phoenician

Declension

Third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem).

Number	Singular			Plural
Case / Gender	Masc./Fem.	Neuter		Masc./Fem.	Neuter
Nominative	phoenīx			phoenīcēs	phoenīca
Genitive	phoenīcis			phoenīcum
Dative	phoenīcī			phoenīcibus
Accusative	phoenīcem	phoenīx		phoenīcēs	phoenīca
Ablative	phoenīce			phoenīcibus
Vocative	phoenīx			phoenīcēs	phoenīca

Synonyms

• (Phoenician): phoenīcius

Related terms

(Phoenician):

• Phoenīcia
• phoenīcius

References

(phoenix):

• “phoenix, īcis, m.”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “phoenīx īcis （acc. īca, O.), m”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “phoenix”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

(Phoenician):

• “Phoenix, īcis”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “Phoenīces, um, m. and sing. Phoenix s.v. Phoenīcē, ēs, f.”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

---

Romanian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin phoenix.

Noun

phoenix m (plural phoenicși)

1. phoenix

Declension

Declension of phoenix

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) phoenix	phoenixul	(niște) phoenicși	phoenicșii
genitive/dative	(unui) phoenix	phoenixului	(unor) phoenicși	phoenicșilor
vocative	phoenixule		phoenicșilor