ozymandias means A person once famous and respected who has since been utterly forgotten.
ozymandias is pronounced /ˌɒziˈmændiəs/.
Why “ozymandias” is a great word
A person who was once famously powerful and respected but whose legacy and memory have since crumbled into complete obscurity. From Ancient Greek Ὀσυμανδύας (Osumandúas), from Demotic Egyptian wsr-mꜣꜥ.t-rꜥ, smn-rꜥ, ns-mn-rꜥ, from Egyptian wsr-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ, the throne name of pharaoh Ramesses II; modern figurative usage derives from Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1817 sonnet 'Ozymandias'. Unlike a 'has-been,' whose faded celebrity is still an echo, or a 'legend,' whose story is actively kept alive, an Ozymandias is the absolute zero of reputation: not diminished but deleted. He is the colossal stone foot, sole and shattered, in an empty desert; the inscribed plinth boasting of boundless works, read by no one; the absolute silence where a king’s command once echoed—a monument not to memory, but to the perfect efficiency of time’s erasure.
Etymology
From Ancient Greek Ὀσυμανδύας (Osumandúas), from Demotic Egyptian wsr-mꜣꜥ.t-rꜥ, smn-rꜥ, ns-mn-rꜥ, from Egyptian wsr-mꜣꜥt-rꜥ, the first part of the throne name of pharaoh Ramesses II. Modern usage derives from the poem Ozymandias, about a proud king whose empire and memory have long since crumbled into obscurity, written by Percy Bysshe Shelley and inspired by Diodorus Siculus's description of a colossal statue in the Ramesseum.
noun
- A person once famous and respected who has since been utterly forgotten.
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