atlantean means Of or like the Greek titan Atlas, who carries the heavens on his shoulders, as in Atlantean strength Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 86 out of 100.
Why this word is great
ATLANTEAN — [Adjective] Of or relating to the mythical Titan Atlas, or to architectural figures (atlantes) that resemble him in supporting a structure. From Latin Atlanteus (from Greek Atlánteios, "of Atlas") + the English suffix -an, or directly from the name Atlantis + -ean. Unlike "Herculean," which denotes dynamic strength to overcome a specific labor, or "Titanic," which implies immense, often catastrophic scale, "Atlantean" describes a state of eternal, static bearing. It is the weary posture of the stone caryatid holding up an entablature for centuries, the bowed back of a parent working through the night, and the silent, tectonic pressure sustaining a sunken myth—a quiet theology of weight, where to endure is the only form of victory.
adj
- Of or like the Greek titan Atlas, who carries the heavens on his shoulders, as in Atlantean strength“With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear / The weight of mightiest Monarchies.”
- Of the celestial spheres carried by Atlas“1940, WHD Rouse, trans. of Nonnus, Dionysiaca
I [Elektra] shall pass from the earth to the stars’ Atlantean vault, and dwell in heaven”
- Of an architectural atlas or atlantid, or reminiscent of such: atlantean figures“Arms outstretched, an Atlantean statue of Jesus welcomes a diver in the mysterious depths off Ambergris Caye”
- Of the mythical island of Atlantis, its people, or its civilization.“2002, Vadim Joseph Rossman, Vidal Sassoon, International Center for the Study of Antisemitism (Universiṭah ha-ʻIvrit bi-Yerushalayim), Russian Intellectual Antisemitism in the Post-Communist Era,
Barkashov saw a critical difference between Atlantis and Hyperborea in the organization of labor. The Atlantean economy, he claims, was based on the use of the mass slave labor in agriculture and crafts, ”
- flooded or submerged, especially in case of a natural disaster, reminiscent of the way Atlantis sank into the ocean“So [after the tsunami], once again Hideaki navigated his way through the Atlantean city, picking his way through crumbling wreckage, splintered wood, and shredded metal to find his elderly mother.”
- of Saturn's moon Atlas
name
- The language supposedly spoken by the inhabitants of Atlantis.“How Atlantean sounded or how the various alphabets worked is anyone's guess, of course, but since there is a certain logic to how language is constructed, we might allow that theirs may not have been so different from our own.”
- A constructed language invented for the 2001 animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire.“Indeed, Okrand's goal in inventing Atlantean was to recreate Indo-European, and it thus borrows from several languages yet contains no recognizable words from these linguistic systems.”
noun
- An inhabitant of the mythical island of Atlantis.“1847, M. Bodichon, Études sur l'Algérie, translated in Nott & Gliddon, 1854, Types of mankind,
The Atlanteans, among the ancients, passed for the favorite children of Neptune; they made known the worship of this god to other nations”
- A pillar or statue in the form of an architectural atlas.“This pyramid has been restored and the tall statues, called Atlanteans (Los Atlantes), have been erected on its summit.”