word | halcyon |
---|---|
definition | (1) Calm and peaceful. (2) Happy and successful. |
eg_sentence | She looks back fondly on those halcyon childhood days when she and her sisters seemed to inhabit a magical world where it was always summer. |
explanation | For the Greeks, the halcyon was a bird (probably the kingfisher) that was believed to nest on the Mediterranean Sea around the beginning of winter, and had the power to quiet the rough December waters around Sicily for about two weeks—the “halcyon days.” Thus the adjective halcyon came to mean calm and serene. Today people especially use it to describe a golden time in their past |
IPA | ˈhælsiən |
Tags: mwvb::unit:30, mwvb::unit:30:word, mwvb::word, mwvb::word-cloze, mwvb::word-reverse, obsidian_to_anki
Learn with these flashcards. Click next, previous, or up to navigate to more flashcards for this subject.
Next card: Maiandros word meander follow winding wander slowly specific
Previous card: Attribute success brains energy forgetting born million play
Up to card list: Merriam-Webster Vocabulary Builder LITE (English)