apoxyomenos means A conventional subject of ancient Greek votive sculpture: an athlete caught in the familiar act of scraping sweat and dust from his body with a strigil. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
apoxyomenos is pronounced /əˌpɑksiˈɑmənɑs/.
Why “apoxyomenos” is a great word
APOXYOMENOS — [Noun] A conventional subject of ancient Greek votive sculpture: an athlete caught in the act of scraping sweat and dust from his body with a strigil. From Ancient Greek ἀποξυόμενος (apoxuómenos), present mediopassive participle of ἀποξύω (apoxúō, “to scrape off”). Unlike the kouros, which stands as an eternal, frontal ideal, or the discobolus, arrested in a public, explosive instant of competition, the apoxyomenos is captured in a private, cyclical ritual of maintenance. It is the sound of bronze on skin after the stadium has emptied, the curl of grime falling from the strigil's edge, and the lowered gaze of a victor alone with his own mortal grime—a monument not to victory, but to the quiet, human labor of the body tending to itself.
noun
- A conventional subject of ancient Greek votive sculpture: an athlete caught in the familiar act of scraping sweat and dust from his body with a strigil.