English

Noun

Cimmerian ‎(plural Cimmerians)

1. (Greek mythology) Any of the mythical people supposed to inhabit a land of perpetual darkness.
   • 1791, Homer, The Odyssey of Homer, translated by William Cowper

     The city, there, of the Cimmerians stands
     With clouds and darkness veil’d, on whom the sun
     Deigns not to look with his beam-darting eye,

   • 1900, Jack London, The Shrinkage of the Planet

     On their mysterious shores were the improbable homes of impossible peoples. The Great Sea, the Broad Sea, the Boundless Sea; the Ethiopians, "dwelling far away, the most distant of men," and the Cimmerians, "covered with darkness and cloud," where "baleful night is spread over timid mortals."

2. one of the Cimmerii, ancient equestrian nomads of Indo-European origin
   • 1588, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus

     Believe me, queen, your swarth Cimmerian
     Doth make your honour of his body's hue,
     Spotted, detested, and abominable.

   • 1902, Encyclopedia Britannica

     The Phrygian power was broken in the 9th or 8th century B.C. by the Cimmerians, who entered Asia Minor through Armenia

   • 1910, Herodotus (484 BCE–425 BCE), History of Herodotus, translated by George Rawlinson

     In his reign the Cimmerians, driven from their homes by the nomads of Scythia, entered Asia and captured Sardis

3. (historical) the prophetic priestess presiding over the Apollonian Oracle at Cimmerium in Italy.
   • 1867 to 1885, Lactantius (240–320 CE), Ante-Nicene Fathers, translated by William Fletcher

     Varro relates that there were ten Sibyls,—the first of the Persians, the second the Libyan, the third the Delphian, the fourth the Cimmerian...

Translations

Adjective

Cimmerian ‎(comparative more Cimmerian, superlative most Cimmerian)

1. Pertaining to the ancient Cimmerians.
2. Characteristic of Cimmeria; especially describing particularly dense darkness etc.
   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, II.12:

     there it sleepeth, here it slumbreth: more or lesse they are ever darknesses, yea Cimmerian darknesses.

Proper noun

Cimmerian

1. the language of the Cimmerians, possibly belonging to the Iranian branch

Translations

English

Adjective

cimmerian ‎(comparative more cimmerian, superlative most cimmerian)

1. perpetually dark or gloomy
   • 1631: Milton, L'Allegro

     There, under ebon shades... in dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

   • 1740: George Frideric Handel and Charles Jennens, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato

     As ragged as thy locks,
     In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

   • 1820: Thomas Love Peacock, The Four Ages of Poetry

     ...the darkness of antiquated barbarism, in which he buries himself like a mole, to throw up the barren hillocks of his Cimmerian labours.

   • 1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter VI,

     The glimpse of blue vault far above only heightened the cimmerian gloom of the canyon, and the frowning rocks, which rose abruptly gave one the impression that they were on the point of crashing into the ravine.

2. (figuratively) mentally dark; ignorant
   • 1770: Baron D'Holbach, The System of Nature

     The source of man’s unhappiness is his ignorance of Nature.... To remove this Cimmerian darkness... requires the clue of Ariadne.

Translations

Derived terms

• cimmerianism
• cimmerianize