POLYPHEMUS

Definition: POLYPHEMUS

POLYPHEMUS

Noun

1. A very large American moth (Telea polyphemus) belonging to the Silkworm family (Bombycidae). Its larva, which is very large, bright green, with silvery tubercles, and with oblique white stripes on the sides, feeds on the oak, chestnut, willow, cherry, apple, and other trees. It produces a large amount of strong silk. Called also American silkworm.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Date "POLYPHEMUS" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1509. (references)

Etymology: Polyphemus \Pol`y*phe"mus\, noun. [Latin expression Polyphemus the one-eyed Cyclops who was blinded by Ulysses.]. (Websters 1913)

Crosswords: POLYPHEMUS

English words defined with "POLYPHEMUS": Antheraea polyphemus ♦ Limulus polyphemus ♦ polyphemus moth ♦ Saturnian ♦ Xiphosurus polyphemus. (references)

Specialty definitions using "POLYPHEMUS": Giants ♦ ULYSSES. (references)

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Specialty Definition: Polyphemus

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Polyphemus, a character in Greek Mythology, is a Cyclops, a son of Poseidon and Thoosa.

Polyphemus in Homer's Odyssey

In the story of Homer's Odyssey a scouting party led by the Trojan War hero Odysseus, lands on the Island of the Cyclopes and ventures upon a large cave. They enter into the cave and proceed to feast on some food they find there. Unknown to them, this cave is the home of Polyphemus who soon comes upon the trespassers and traps them in his cave. He proceeds to eat several crew members, but Odysseus devised a cunning plan for escape.

To make Polyphemus unwary, Odysseus gave him a barrel of very strong, unwatered wine. When Polyphemus asked for Odysseus' name, he told him that it was "Noman". Once the giant fell asleep, Odysseus and his men took a hardened spear and destroyed Polyphemus' only eye. In the morning, Odysseus tied his men and himself to the undersides of Polyphemus' sheep. When the Cyclops let the sheep out to graze, the men were carried out. Since Polyphemus was blind, he didn't see the men, but felt the tops of his sheep to make sure the men weren't riding them.

Once the sheep (and men) were safely out, Polyphemus realized that the men weren't in his cave. He yelled out to his fellow Cyclopes that "Noman" hurt him, so they ignored him. As Odysseus and his men were sailing away, he told Polyphemus that "Noman didn't hurt you, Odysseus did!" Odysseus didn't realize that Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon, and that telling him his name would have severe repercussions.

The Sicilian Greek poet Theocritus wrote two poems circa 275 BC concerning Polyphemus' love for Galatea, a sea nymph. When Galatea instead loved Acis, a Sicilian mortal, a jealous Polyphemus killed him with a boulder. Galatea turned Acis' blood into a river of the same name in Sicily.

In Greek mythology, Polyphemus was one of the Argonauts. He helped Heracles search for Hyllas and both were left behind by the Argo.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Polyphemus."

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Commercial Usage: POLYPHEMUS

Domain	Title
Books	Polyphemus (reference) Polyphemus and Galatea (Series of Four Artists books) (reference) The Fable of Polyphemus and Galatea (American University Studies, Series II: Romance Languages and Literature, Vol 75) (reference) The life cycle of a Polyphemus moth (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: POLYPHEMUS

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Historic Usage: POLYPHEMUS

Author	Date	Quotation
John Locke	1690	And no doubt Ulysses, who was a prudent man, preached up passive obedience, and exhorted them to a quiet submission, by representing to them of what concernment peace was to mankind; and by shewing the inconveniences might happen, if they should offer to resist Polyphemus, who had now the power over them. (Second Treatise of Government)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: POLYPHEMUS

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	With it Homer could have bound Polyphemus, or Shakspeare Caliban.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Usage Frequency: POLYPHEMUS

"POLYPHEMUS" is generally used as a noun (proper) -- approximately 66.67% of the time. "POLYPHEMUS" is used about 3 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (proper)	66.67%	2	245,945
Noun (singular)	33.33%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	3	N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expressions: POLYPHEMUS

Expressions using "POLYPHEMUS": Antheraea polyphemus ♦ limulus polyphemus ♦ polyphemus moth ♦ Telea polyphemus ♦ Xiphosurus polyphemus. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: POLYPHEMUS

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
moth polyphemus	51
polyphemus	21
limulus polyphemus	11
gopherus polyphemus	5
antheraea polyphemus	4
moths polyphemus	4
moth photo polyphemus	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Rhyming with "POLYPHEMUS"

Words rhyming with "POLYPHEMUS" (pronounced 'Pol`y*phe"mus'): Accismus, Bulimus, Chiasmus, Cormus, humus, IGNORAMUS, isthmus, litmus, mandamus, marasmus, Momus, Nystagmus, Primus, Ramus, Rhythmus, strabismus, tenesmus, Thymus, trismus, Ulmus, vaginismus. (additional references)

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Anagrams: POLYPHEMUS

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-h-l-m-o-p-p-s-u-y"
	-2 letters: mesophyl.
	-3 letters: employs, hopples, peplums, phloems, plumose, polypus, pumelos, shlumpy.
	-4 letters: employ, homely, hopple, housel, hoyles, loupes, lymphs, mohels, mousey, muleys, myopes, oleums, ouphes, peplos, peplum, peplus, phloem, phylum, plumes, plumps, plushy, polyps, poshly, pumelo, pusley, shlepp, shlump, shoppe, sloppy, supple, supply.
	-5 letters: helms, helos, helps, hemps, hempy, holes, holey, holms, homes, homey, hopes.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.