phoenix

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See also: Phoenix, Phönix, phœnix, and Phœnix

English

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Phoenix (1)
Stone bas-relief with phoenixes (3), Eastern Han dynasty, Tokyo National Museum
Phoenix (Greek coin)

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old English and Old French fenix, from Medieval Latin phenix, from Latin phoenīx, from Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ (phoînix), from Egyptian bnw (boinu, grey heron). Doublet of Bennu. The grey heron was venerated at Heliopolis and associated in Egypt with the cyclical renewal of life because the bird rises in flight at dawn and migrates back every year in the flood season to inhabit the Nile waters.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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phoenix (plural phoenix or phoenixes or phoenices)

  1. (mythology) A mythological bird, said to be the only one of its kind, which lives for 500 years and then dies by burning to ashes on a pyre of its own making, ignited by the sun. It then arises anew from the ashes.
  2. (figuratively) Anything that is reborn after apparently being destroyed.
    Astronomers believe planets might form in this dead star's disk, like the mythical Phoenix rising up out of the ashes.
    • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter II, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. [], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, [], published 1842, →OCLC, page 17:
      Lord Allerton was that modern phœnix, a young man, without a single objection.
    • 1946, George Johnston, Skyscrapers in the Mist, page 90:
      Many of the legitimate nightclubs of today sprang like legalized phoenixes from the still-hot ashes of the speakeasies of prohibition days.
  3. (Chinese mythology) A mythological Chinese chimerical bird whose physical body symbolizes the six celestial bodies; a fenghuang.
  4. (historical) A Greek silver coin used briefly from 1828 to 1832, divided into 100 lepta.
    • 2019, Roderick Beaton, Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation, Penguin, published 2020, page 116:
      The national currency, the phoenix, which had been established by Kapodistrias, was renamed after an ancient Greek coin, the drachma.
  5. (obsolete) A marvelous person or thing.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

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phoenix (third-person singular simple present phoenixes, present participle phoenixing, simple past and past participle phoenixed)

  1. (Australia) To transfer assets from one company to another to dodge liability
    • 2019 December 17, Noel Gladstone, Carrie Fellner, “Small business flattened by 'dodgy' builders in phoenixing epidemic”, in The Sydney Morning Herald[1]:
      Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association CEO John Winter said phoenixing has been "endemic" for decades.
    • 2020 September 24, Anne Davies, “Phoenixing: how unscrupulous dealers rise debt-free from the ashes of failed companies”, in The Sydney Morning Herald[2]:
      The ATO defines iIllegal[sic – meaning illegal] phoenixing as when a new company is created to continue the business of a company that has been deliberately liquidated to avoid paying its debts, including taxes, creditors and employee entitlements.

References

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  1. ^ Maria Carmela Betrò, Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt (Abbeville, 1996), 108.

Further reading

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Latin

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ (phoînix).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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phoenīx f (genitive phoenīcis); third declension

  1. (mythology) phoenix

Declension

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Third-declension noun (i-stem).

Case Singular Plural
Nominative phoenīx phoenīcēs
Genitive phoenīcis phoenīcium
Dative phoenīcī phoenīcibus
Accusative phoenīcem phoenīcēs
phoenīcīs
Ablative phoenīce phoenīcibus
Vocative phoenīx phoenīcēs

Noun

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phoenīx m (genitive phoenīcis); third declension

  1. Phoenician

Declension

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Third-declension noun.

Case Singular Plural
Nominative phoenīx phoenīcēs
Genitive phoenīcis phoenīcum
Dative phoenīcī phoenīcibus
Accusative phoenīcem phoenīcēs
Ablative phoenīce phoenīcibus
Vocative phoenīx phoenīcēs

Adjective

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phoenīx (genitive phoenīcis); third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem)

  1. Phoenician

Declension

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Third-declension one-termination adjective (non-i-stem).

Number Singular Plural
Case / Gender Masc./Fem. Neuter Masc./Fem. Neuter
Nominative phoenīx phoenīcēs phoenīca
Genitive phoenīcis phoenīcum
Dative phoenīcī phoenīcibus
Accusative phoenīcem phoenīx phoenīcēs phoenīca
Ablative phoenīce phoenīcibus
Vocative phoenīx phoenīcēs phoenīca

Synonyms

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(Phoenician):

References

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(phoenix):

(Phoenician):

Romanian

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Etymology

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Unadapted borrowing from Latin phoenīx.

Noun

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phoenix m (plural phoenicși)

  1. phoenix

Declension

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