narcissus means 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. It carries an Arena rating of 1507, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, narcissus ranks #536 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #797 of 17,127 for Most Vivid Words, #1,807 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #2,810 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
narcissus is pronounced /nɑː(r)ˈsɪsəs/.
Why “narcissus” is a great word
Narcissus is the beautiful youth of Greek myth who, enraptured by his own reflection, wasted away and was transformed into the flower that bears his name. From Latin Narcissus, from Ancient Greek Νάρκισσος (Nárkissos), the name of the mythological figure, possibly related to νάρκη (narkē, "numbness, torpor") due to the plant's narcotic properties or the myth's theme of stupefaction. Unlike "daffodil" (which names the cheerful, trumpet-shaped bloom) or "egotist" (which denotes mere selfishness), "Narcissus" carries the full weight of a captivated paralysis—a perfect loop of desire that consumes its object. It is the pale flower bending over dark water, the exquisite tragedy of loving a phantom that cannot love you back, and the hush that falls when one meets one’s own gaze for too long—a parable of the self, reflected unto oblivion.
Etymology
From Latin Narcissus, from Ancient Greek Νάρκισσος (Nárkissos, “Narcissus”).
name
- 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.
noun
- Any of several bulbous flowering plants, of the genus Narcissus, having white or yellow cup- or trumpet-shaped flowers, notably the daffodil
- A beautiful young man, like the mythological Greek Narcissus
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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