protean

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See also: Protean

English[edit]

WOTD – 22 March 2009

Etymology[edit]

From Ancient Greek Πρωτεύς (Prōteús, literally “first”), the Greek warden of sea-beasts, renowned for his ability to change shape.[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈpɹəʊ.tɪ.ən/, /pɹəʊˈtiː.ən/
  • (US) enPR: prō'ti-ən, prō-tē'ən, IPA(key): /ˈpɹoʊ.tɪ.ən/, /pɹoʊˈtiː.ən/
  • Audio (US)(file)
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    Audio (US)(file)

Adjective[edit]

protean (comparative more protean, superlative most protean)

  1. Exceedingly variable; readily assuming different shapes or forms.
    Synonyms: multiform, polymorphic, polymorphous, shapeshifting; see also Thesaurus:multiform
    An amoeba is a protean animalcule.
    • 1980, Gershon Legman, The New Limerick:
      […] the word's protean expressiveness has been observed in a xeroxlore item printed in Robert Anton Wilson's Playboy's Book of Forbidden Words […]
    • 1987, William A. Henry III, Time Magazine Volume 129
      He loved to show off his protean talent.
    • 2020 October 27, Daphne Merkin, “Shifting the Focus From Sylvia Plath’s Tragic Death to Her Brilliant Life”, in The New York Times‎[1], ISSN 0362-4331:
      In the intervening decades she has become a protean figure, an emblem of different things to different people, depending upon their viewpoint — a visionary, a victim, a martyr, a feminist icon, a schizophrenic, a virago, a prisoner of gender — or, perhaps, a genius, as both Plath and Hughes maintained during her lifetime.
  2. Alternative letter-case form of Protean (of or relating to Proteus).

Translations[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2022), “protean”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Further reading[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

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