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Webster 1913 Edition

Mythology

My-thol′o-gy

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Mythologies
(#)
.
[F.
mythologie
, L.
mythologia
, Gr.
μυθολογία
;
μῦθος
, fable, myth +
λόγοσ
speech, discourse.]
1.
The science which treats of myths; a treatise on myths.
2.
A body of myths; esp., the collective myths which describe the gods of a heathen people;
as, the
mythology
of the Greeks
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Mythology

MYTHOL'OGY

,
Noun.
[Gr. a fable, and discourse.] A system of fables or fabulous opinions and doctrines respecting the deities which heathen nations have supposed to preside over the world or to influence the affairs of it.

Definition 2024

mythology

mythology

English

Noun

mythology ‎(countable and uncountable, plural mythologies)

  1. (countable and uncountable) The collection of myths of a people, concerning the origin of the people, history, deities, ancestors and heroes.
    • 2013 June 8, “Obama goes troll-hunting”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 55:
      The solitary, lumbering trolls of Scandinavian mythology would sometimes be turned to stone by exposure to sunlight. Barack Obama is hoping that several measures announced on June 4th will have a similarly paralysing effect on their modern incarnation, the patent troll.
  2. (countable and uncountable) A similar body of myths concerning an event, person or institution.
    • 2003, Peter Utgaard, Remembering & Forgetting Nazism: Education, National Identity, and the Victim Myth in Postwar Austria, Berghahn Books, ISBN 978-1-57181-187-5, page x:
      This program to distinguish Austria from Germany was important to building a new Austria, but it also indirectly contributed to victim mythology by implying that participation in the Nazi war of conquest was antithetical to Austrian identity.
  3. (countable and uncountable) Pervasive elements of a fictional universe that resemble a mythological universe.
    • 2000 April 28, Caryn James (?), As Scheherazade Was Saying . . ., in The New York Times, page E31, reproduced in The New York Times Television Reviews 2000, Routledge (2001), ISBN 978-1-57958-060-5, page 198:
      This tongue-in-cheek episode is especially fun for people who don’t take their “X-Files” mythology seriously.
  4. (uncountable) The systematic collection and study of myths.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

See also

Etymology

First attested in English in 1412. From Middle French mythologie, from Latin mythologia, from Ancient Greek μυθολογία ‎(muthología, “legend”) μυθολογέω ‎(muthologéō, “I tell tales”), from μυθολόγος ‎(muthológos, “legend”), from μῦθος ‎(mûthos, “story”) + λέγω ‎(légō, “I say”).

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: mĭthôlôjē, IPA(key): /mɪˈθɒlədʒi/
  • (US) IPA(key): /mɪˈθɑːlədʒi/
  • Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi

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