Aphrodite (n.)

Greek goddess of love and beauty, personification of female grace, 1650s; the ancients derived her name from Greek aphros "foam," from the story of her birth, but the word is perhaps rather from Phoenician Ashtaroth (Assyrian Ishtar). Beekes writes, "As the goddess seems to be of oriental origin ..., the name probably comes from the East too. .... It may have entered Greek via another language." He concludes, "[I]t seems possible that the name came from the one languages [sic] which on historical grounds we should expect to be relevant: Cypriot Phoenician."

Associated by the Romans with their Venus, who originally was a less-important goddess. It was pronounced in 17c. English to rhyme with night, right, etc.

also from 1650s

Entries linking to Aphrodite

Venus

late Old English, from Latin Venus (plural veneres), in ancient Roman mythology, the goddess of beauty and love, especially sensual love, from venus "love, sexual desire; loveliness, beauty, charm; a beloved object," from PIE root *wen- (1) "to desire, strive for."

Applied by the Romans to Greek Aphrodite, Egyptian Hathor, etc. Applied in English to any beautiful, attractive woman by 1570s. As the name of the most brilliant planet from late 13c., from this sense in Latin (Old English called it morgensteorra and æfensteorra).

aphrodisiac (n.)

"preparation or drug which excites sexual desire," 1719, from Latinized form of Greek aphrodisiakos "inducing sexual desire," from Aphrodisios, "sacred to Aphrodite, pertaining to Aphrodite," Greek goddess of love and beauty (see Aphrodite), whose name also meant "sexual pleasure; a temple of Aphrodite." As an adjective from 1775 (earlier was aphrodisical, 1719). Aphrodisian "devoted to sexual love" is attested from 1864.

April

hermaphrodite

See all related words (4) >

Trends of Aphrodite

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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hermaphrodite

late 14c. (harmofroditus), from Latin hermaphroditus, from Greek hermaphroditos "person partaking of the attributes of both sexes," as a proper name, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, who, in Ovid, was loved by the nymph Salmacis so ardently that she prayed for complete union with

uranian

"homosexual," 1893, from the reference to Aphrodite in Plato's "Symposium;" Urania "Heavenly" (Greek Ourania; see Uranus)...being an epithet of Aphrodite as born of Uranus and also as distinguished from the vulgar Venus of commonplace lust....But the son of the heavenly Aphrodite is sprung from a mother in whose birth the female has no part, but she is from the...

callipygian

"of, pertaining to, or having beautiful buttocks," 1800, Latinized from Greek kallipygos, the name of a statue of Aphrodite...

charisma

kharizesthai "to show favor to," from kharis "grace, beauty, kindness" (Charis was the name of one of the three attendants of Aphrodite...

apple

Paris, elected to choose which goddess should have it, gave it to Aphrodite, offending Hera and Athene, with consequences...

quandary

"state of great difficulty or perplexity," 1570s, a word of unknown origin and even the pronunciation is unsettled in old dictionaries (it seems to have been originally accented on the second syllable). Perhaps it is a quasi-Latinism based on Latin quando "when? at what time?; at

poverty

late 12c., poverte, "destitution, want, need or insufficiency of money or goods," from Old French poverte, povrete "poverty, misery, wretched condition" (Modern French pauvreté), from Latin paupertatem (nominative paupertas) "poverty," from pauper "poor" (see poor (adj.)). From e

assess

early 15c., "to fix the amount (of a tax, fine, etc.)," from Anglo-French assesser, from Medieval Latin assessare "fix a tax upon," originally frequentative of Latin assessus "a sitting by," past participle of assidere/adsidere "to sit beside" (and thus to assist in the office of

duplicity

"deceptiveness, character or practice of speaking differently of the same thing or acting differently at different times or to different persons," early 15c., from Old French duplicite (13c.), from Late Latin duplicitatem (nominative duplicitas) "doubleness," in Medieval Latin "a

exquisite

early 15c., "carefully selected," from Latin exquisitus "choice," literally "carefully sought out," from past participle stem of exquirere "search out thoroughly," from ex "out" (see ex-) + quaerere "to seek" (see query (v.)). Originally in English of any thing (good or bad, tort

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updated on September 24, 2022

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Dictionary entries near Aphrodite

aphorism

aphoristic

aphotic

Aphra

aphrodisiac

Aphrodite

apiarist

apiary

apical

apiculture

apiece