Translingual

Narcissus pseudonarcissus

Etymology

From Ancient Greek Νάρκισσος ‎(Nárkissos, “Narcissus”), a character in Greek mythology, renowned for his beauty and pride.

Proper noun

Narcissus m

1. A taxonomic genus within the family Amaryllidaceae – the daffodils.

Hypernyms

• (genus): Plantae - kingdom; angiosperms, monocots - clades; Asparagales - order; Amaryllidaceae - family; Amaryllidoideae - subfamily; Narcisseae - tribe

Hyponyms

• (genus): Narcissus subg. Hermione, Narcissus subg. Narcissus - subgenera; See Narcissus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies for the numerous species.

English

Proper noun

Narcissus

1. (Greek mythology) A youth who spurned the love of Echo and fell in love with his own reflection in a pool: in some versions of the myth, he drowned trying to reach it, while in others he sat fixated until a god took pity and transformed him into a flower.
   • 1982, Carl G. Vaught, The Quest for Wholeness, page 25,

     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.

   • 1994, Ronald Bogue, Mihai Spariosu, The Play of the Self, page 34,

     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).

   • 1999, Mieke Bal, Quoting Caravaggio: Contemporary Art, Preposterous History, page 237,

     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

Related terms

• narcissism
• Narcissus complex

Translations

English

Noun

narcissus ‎(plural narcissuses or narcissi)

Narcissus (Narcissus poeticus)

Wikispecies

1. Any of several bulbous flowering plants, of the genus Narcissus, having white or yellow cup- or trumpet-shaped flowers, notably the daffodil
   • 2014 September 26, Charles Quest-Ritson, “The Dutch garden where tulip bulbs live forever: Hortus Bulborum, a volunteer-run Dutch garden, is dedicated to conserving historic varieties before they vanish for good [print version: Inspired by a living bulb archive, 27 September 2014, p. G5]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Gardening):

     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.

2. A beautiful young man, like the mythological Greek Narcissus

Translations

Latin

Etymology

From Ancient Greek νάρκισσος ‎(nárkissos).

Noun

narcissus m ‎(genitive narcissī); second declension

1. narcissus

Inflection

Second declension.

References

• narcissus in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• narcissus in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• NARCISSUS in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
• narcissus in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia
• narcissus in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• narcissus in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray