Advertisement

Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

Origin and history of Aeneas

Aeneas

hero of the "Aeneid," son of Anchises and Aphrodite, Latin, from Greek Aineias, a name of unknown origin, perhaps literally "praise-worthy," from ainos "tale, story, saying, praise" (related to enigma); or perhaps related to ainos "horrible, terrible." The epic poem title Aeneid (late 15c. in English) is literally "of or pertaining to Aeneas," from French Enéide, Latin Æneida; see -id.

Entries linking to Aeneas

1530s, "statement which conceals a hidden meaning or known thing under obscure words or forms," earlier enigmate (mid-15c.), from Latin aenigma "riddle," from Greek ainigma (plural ainigmata) "a dark saying, riddle," from ainissesthai "speak obscurely, speak in riddles," from ainos "tale, story; saying, proverb;" according to Liddell & Scott, a poetic and Ionic word, of unknown origin. General sense in English of "anything inexplicable to an observer" is from c. 1600.

adjectival word-forming element, especially in zoology, "belonging to, connected with, member of a group or class," in some cases probably via from French -ide, back-formed from Modern Latin names of zoological classes in -idae, as arachnid "a spider" from the biological class name arachnidae.

This -idae is the plural of Latin -ides, a masculine patronymic (indicating "descent from"), from Greek -ides "son of," denoting descent from the person to whose name it is attached (such as Heraklides).

In astronomy, of meteor showers, "having its radiant in" the constellation named (Perseid, Leonid, etc.), it probably represents Latin -idis, from Greek -idos, the genitive of the feminine form of the patronymic suffix.

    Advertisement

    Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

    Trends of Aeneas

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

    More to explore

    Share Aeneas

    Advertisement

    Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

    Trending
    Advertisement

    Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.

    Want to remove ads? Log in to see fewer ads, and become a Premium Member to remove all ads.