Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday March 22, 2005
stygian \STIJ-ee-uhn\ , adjective:
1. [Often capitalized] Of or pertaining to the river Styx, the principal river of the underworld in Greek mythology; hence, hellish; infernal.
2. Dark and dismal.
Although accounts vary, that vision, both sublime and ominous, helped give birth to "Metropolis," a cinematic landmark set in a teeming, towering city of the future, an automated, urban sprawl where the wealthy live up in the heavens and the laborers toil in the steaming, Stygian depths.
-- James Verniere, "Aye, robot", Boston Herald, August 23, 2002
This month NASA has selected two proposals for a mission to that tiny frozen world 3.5 billion miles away. There, the Sun is just a small stab of light in the Stygian blackness.
-- Ian Brown, "The race is on to reveal Pluto's secrets", Independent, June 22, 2001
Light is funnelled into this stygian domain through the central oculus and a pair of saucer domes.
-- Catherine Slessor, "Oxford ordonnance", The Architectural Review, October 1, 1994
The gleaming steel catches the sunlight, casting a play of sparkling reflections and shadows into the Stygian, subterranean depths.
-- Catherine Slessor, "Bermondsey Beacon", The Architectural Review, June 1, 2000
Stygian is from Latin Stygius, from Greek Stygios, from Styx, Styg-, "Styx."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for stygian
