narcissus
/nɑɹˈsɪsəs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.68 in modern English
11
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Any of several bulbous flowering plants, of the genus Narcissus, having white or yellow cup- or trumpet-shaped flowers, notably the daffodil
noun
A beautiful young man, like the mythological Greek Narcissus
Example Sentences
- "The Daughters of the Flood have ſearch'd the Mead / For Violets pale, and cropt the Poppy's Head: / The Short Narciſſus and fair Daffodil, / Pancies to pleaſe the Sight, and Caſſia ſvveet to ſmell: […]"
- "At Hortus Bulborum you will find heirloom narcissi that date back at least to the 15th century and famous old tulips like 'Duc van Tol' (1595) and its sports."
- "At the beginning of his narrative, Ishmael mentions Narcissus, the legendary character who plunged into the water and was drowned in the attempt to grasp his own essence (p. 14). Narcissus was unwilling to understand the relationship between himself and “the ungraspable phantom of life” in gradualistic terms and sought to bring that relationship to immediate closure, thus annihilating himself."
- "We may now affirm that Plato's cave is inhabited by Narcissus. He already knows, but the knowledge he possesses is still a bit confused, obscure (this knowledge is situated in the caves of the memory, a dark space much like Narcissus’s place)."
- "Narcissus, as the myth has it, died because, unlike Lacan's child, he did not recognize himself; nor did he perceive the mirror for what it was: a boundary between reality and fiction.¹⁵"
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin narcissus, from Ancient Greek νάρκισσος (nárkissos), ultimately either from Pre-Greek or related to νάρκη (nárkē).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: narcissus, νάρκισσος
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /nɑɹˈsɪsəs/
Inflected Forms
Derived Forms
Phrases
narcissus-flowered anemone
Narcissus complex
Frequently Paired Words
narcissism
Narcissus complex