genius

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See also: génius and Genius

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

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(deprecated template usage)

From Latin genius (“inborn nature; a tutelary deity of a person or place; wit, brilliance”), from gignō (“to beget, produce”), Old Latin genō, from the (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European root *ǵenh₁-. See also genus.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -iːniəs

Noun

genius (plural geniuses or genii)

  1. (eulogistic) Someone possessing extraordinary intelligence or skill; especially somebody who has demonstrated this by a creative or original work in science, music, art etc.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 1, in The Celebrity:
      In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned.
  2. Extraordinary mental capacity.
  3. Inspiration, a mental leap, an extraordinary creative process.
    a work of genius.
  4. (Roman mythology) The tutelary deity or spirit of a place or person.
    • (Can we date this quote by Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      the unseen genius of the wood
    • (Can we date this quote by Tylor and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      We talk of genius still, but with thought how changed! The genius of Augustus was a tutelary demon, to be sworn by and to receive offerings on an altar as a deity.

Synonyms

Antonyms

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Translations

tutelary deity — see tutelary deity

Adjective

genius (not comparable)

  1. (informal) ingenious, very clever, or original.
    What a genius idea!
    • 2012 May 20, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club‎[1]:
      We all know how genius “Kamp Krusty,” “A Streetcar Named Marge,” “Homer The Heretic,” “Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie” and “Mr. Plow” are, but even the relatively unheralded episodes offer wall-to-wall laughs and some of the smartest, darkest, and weirdest gags ever Trojan-horsed into a network cartoon with a massive family audience.

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Latin

Etymology

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(deprecated template usage)

Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget”), perhaps through Old Latin genō (“to beget, give birth; to produce, cause”). Comparisons with Aramaic ܓܢܝܐ (ginnaya, “tutelary deity”), and with Arabic جِنّ (jinn, “jinn, spirit, demon”) and جَنِين (janīn, “embryo, germ”), suggest the effects of an older substrate word.

Pronunciation

Noun

genius m (genitive geniī or genī); second declension

  1. the deity or guardian spirit of a person, place, etc.
  2. an inborn nature or innate character, especially (though not exclusively) as endowed by a personal (especially tutelar) spirit or deity.
  3. (with respect to the enjoyment of life) the spirit of social enjoyment, fondness for good living, taste, appetite, inclinations
  4. (of the intellect) wit, talents, genius (rare)

Declension

Second-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative genius geniī
Genitive geniī
genī1 		geniōrum
Dative geniō geniīs
Accusative genium geniōs
Ablative geniō geniīs
Vocative genī geniī

1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

Quotations

This entry needs quotations to illustrate usage. If you come across any interesting, durably archived quotes then please add them!
  • Catullus[,] Tibullus and Pervigilium Veneris, 1921, page 328f. containing Albius Tibullus III, XI, 9f. = IV, V, 9f. with a translation into English by J. P. Postgate:
    magne Geni, cape tura libens votisque faveto,
    si modo, cum de me cogitat, ille calet.
    Great Genius, take this incense with a will, and smile upon my prayer, if only when he thinks on me his pulse beats high.

Descendants

  • Catalan: geni, giny
  • Dutch: genie
  • English: genius, genie
  • French: génie
  • German: Genie, Genius

Template:mid2

References

  • “genius”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • “genius”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • genius in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
  • genius in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
  • “genius”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • “genius”, in William Smith, editor (1848), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
  • “genius”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
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