corypheus

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Latin coryphaeus, from Ancient Greek κορυφαῖος (koruphaîos, leader), from κορυφή (koruphḗ, head).

Noun

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corypheus (plural corypheuses or coryphei)

  1. (drama, historical) The conductor or leader of the dramatic chorus in Ancient Greece.
    • 1953, Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages[1], page 443:
      In this work Homer and Virgil already appear beside Cicero and Plato as doctrinal authorities. The four corypheuses are infallible; any contradiction between them is wholly out of the question.
  2. (by extension) The chief or leader of a party or interest.
    • a. 1716, Robert South, Discourse:
      That noted corypheus of the Independent faction.
    • 1800, Prosper Guéranger, translated by Laurence Shepherd, The Liturgical Year: The Time after Pentecost, volume 3, page 443:
      Let us blithely hail, throughout the whole universe, these disciples of Christ, these two Coryphei, Peter and Paul : O Peter, the Foundation-stone and Rock ; and thou also, O Paul, Vessel of Election.
    • 1824, John Foster, A Sketch of the Tour of General Lafayette, on His Late Visit to the United States, 1824[2], page 27:
      Then Corypheus Marat, author of the Friend of the People, constantly denounced him as the traitor Lafayette.
    • 1940, Charles Sanders Peirce, Philosophical Writings of Peirce[3], page 270:
      Chauncey Wright, something of a philosophical celebrity in those days, was never absent from our meetings. I was about to call him our corypheus; but he will better be described as our boxing-master whom we—I particularly—used to face to be severely pummelled.
    • 1992, Demetres P. Tryphonopoulos, The Celestial Tradition: A Study of Ezra Pound's The Cantos[4], page 36:
      The Gnostic depreciation of the cosmos and its creator aroused the ire of the founder and corypheus of the Neoplatonic School, Plotinus (205-70), who presided over an academia in Rome and possibly had a private mystical practice.

Synonyms

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  • (leader of a dramatic chorus in Ancient Greece):
  • (chief or leader of a party or interest): coryphe

Translations

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