This week’s theme
Eponymic adjectives

This week’s words
Damoclean
Penelopean
melpomenish
Alician
Atlantean

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(puh-nel-uh-PEE-uhn)

MEANING:

adjective:
1. Involving repetitive or cyclical efforts, often with little apparent progress.
2. Characterized by steadfast loyalty and resilience despite prolonged adversity.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Penelope, the wife of Odysseus and mother of Telemachus in Greek mythology. Earliest documented use: 1627. Some other words coined after her are penelope and penelopize. Also see sisyphean.

NOTES:

Penelope waited 20 years for her husband’s return from the Trojan War (ten years of war, and ten years on his way home). She kept her many suitors at bay by telling them she would marry them when she had finished weaving her web, a shroud for her father-in-law. She wove the web during the day only to unravel it during the night.

USAGE:

“We could think of her stories as the unsuccessful attempt to write her memoir, as a Penelopean endeavor in which the tapestry of her life is woven and rewoven.”
Joanne O’Leary; Furious Seasons: The Life and Work of Lucia Berlin; Bookforum (New York); Dec 2018/Jan 2019.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: