Make Your Point: POLYPHEMUS

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pronounce POLYPHEMUS:

poll uh FEE muss

connect this word to others:

If you're reading Homer's Odyssey, you'll bump into Polyphemus, as well as a band of sirens, a bunch of lotus-eaters, and Scylla and Charybdis.

The first is a one-eyed monster. Can you recall what each of those other characters is? Which one dooms you no matter what, which one tries its best to doom you, and which one is just lazy?

definition:

In Greek myth, Polyphemus is a one-eyed giant. His name literally means "many-voiced" or possibly "storied, famous: often talked about." In The Odyssey, Polyphemus goes head-to-head with Odysseus, who blinds him. Yup: Odysseus blinds the giant who only had one eye in the first place.

So, if you call something a Polyphemus, you mean it's something ugly and terrifying, like the one-eyed giant from the myths.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Noun, the countable kind: "It became a Polyphemus;" "It terrorized us like a Polyphemus."

Other forms:

There's an alternate noun, "Polypheme," with the same meaning.

For an adjective, you can pick from "polyphemic," "polyphemous," and "polyphemian." Dictionaries list these as common adjectives, with lowercase letters, but you could capitalize them if that makes more sense to you.

how to use it:

When you need a rare and outrageously literary synonym for "beast" or "monster," try "Polyphemus." It lets you compare your subject to the vicious man-eating cyclops from The Odyssey.

You might say that some terrible person, group, or institution is a Polyphemus, or say that something is like Polyphemus or has grown into a Polyphemus. For example, we could point out that the villain in The Kite Runner, Assef, is a Polyphemus: someone huge, powerful, monstrous, pure evil, and (spoiler alert) destined to be heroically deprived of an eye.

examples:

"That notorious old scoundrel, the Duke of QUEENSBERRY, whose name is almost as familiar to the disgust of the present generation as his Polyphemic face, ogling Piccadilly from a bow-window, used to be to our British forefathers..."
— Staff, New York Times, 22 July 1857

"That dreadful concoction ‘lithoclassiology’ [is] a Polyphemus of a word."
— Royal Anthropological Institute Of Great Britain And Ireland, Man: A Monthly Record of Anthropological Science, Volume 29, 1929

has this page helped you understand "Polyphemus"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "Polyphemus" without saying "beast" or "leviathan."

try it out:

Fill in the blanks: "(Some person, place, or experience) was a Polyphemus that very nearly ate me alive: (tell how)."

Example: "Intro to Chemistry was a Polyphemus that very nearly ate me alive: I studied endlessly, understood nothing, failed the quizzes, and got spat out."

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Market That Makeup!"

Check out the names given to the shades in a palette, and decide what to call the shade with the missing name. You might channel the vibe established by the other shade names, or just pick the weirdest or most grandiloquent name you can think of. To see the shade's real name—the one that the marketing team picked—scroll all the way down.

Try this one today:

Tarte's "Maneater After Dark Palette" includes shades like "enamored," "heartbreaker," "sundown," "charming," "moody," and "nocturnal."

Invent a name for the shade on the top row, far right:

(Source)

review this word:

1. The near-opposite of a POLYPHEMUS could be

A. a MONOCLE.
B. a FUSION CUISINE.
C. a GUARDIAN ANGEL.

2. Aptly named, a Polyphemus moth is one that _____.

A. seeks light even if it kills it
B. shimmers with delicate multicolored wings
C. grows to a dramatic 15cm wide and appears to have a single large eye on each wing

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
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  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
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How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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