different between allegory vs myth

English

Etymology

From Middle English allegorie, from Old French allegorie, from Latin allegoria, from Ancient Greek ????????? (all?goría), from ????? (állos, “other”) + ??????? (agoreú?, “I speak”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æl.???o??.i/, /?æl.?????.i/

Noun

allegory (countable and uncountable, plural allegories)

1. (rhetoric) A narrative in which a character, place, or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences.
2. A picture, book, or other form of communication using such representation.
3. A symbolic representation which can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, usually a moral or political one.
4. (mathematics, category theory) A category that retains some of the structure of the category of binary relations between sets, representing a high-level generalisation of that category.

Derived terms

• allegoric
• allegorical
• allegorically
• allegorist
• allegorize

Related terms

• agora
• agoraphobia
• category

Translations

See also

• metaphor

English

Alternative forms

• mythe (rare or archaic)

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ????? (mûthos, “word, humour, companion, speech, account, rumour, fable”). Attested in English since 1830. Doublet of mythos.

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?th, IPA^(key): /m??/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

myth (plural myths)

1. A traditional story which embodies a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; a sacred narrative regarding a god, a hero, the origin of the world or of a people, etc.
2. (uncountable) Such stories as a genre.

   Myth was the product of man's emotion and imagination, acted upon by his surroundings. (E. Clodd, Myths & Dreams (1885), 7, cited after OED)

3. A commonly-held but false belief, a common misconception; a fictitious or imaginary person or thing; a popular conception about a real person or event which exaggerates or idealizes reality.

   Synonym: misconception

   Scientists debunk the myth that gum stays in the human stomach for seven years.

4. A person or thing held in excessive or quasi-religious awe or admiration based on popular legend

   Father Flanagan was legendary, his institution an American myth. (Tucson (Arizona) Citizen, 20 September 1979, 5A/3, cited after OED)

5. A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.
   • 1849, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Caxtons

     As for Mrs. Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years.

6. An invented story, theory, or concept.

   His story is a pure myth.

Related terms

Translations

See also

• legend

Further reading

• myth in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• myth in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• "myth" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 210.

Welsh

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /m???/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /mi??/

Noun

myth

1. Nasal mutation of byth.

Mutation