different between griffin vs sphinx
griffin
English
Alternative forms
- grifon, gryfon (obsolete)
- gryphon
- griffon
Etymology
From Middle English griffoun, from Old French griffon, from Latin gryphus, from Ancient Greek ???? (grúps).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /???f?n/
- Rhymes: -?f?n
Noun
griffin (plural griffins)
- A mythical beast having the body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle.
- A large vulture (Gyps fulvus) found in the mountainous parts of Southern Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor, supposed to be the "eagle" of the Bible.
- An English variety of apple.
- (dated, India) A person who has just arrived from Europe.
- A cadet newly arrived in British India: half English, half Indian.
- A watchful guardian, especially a duenna in charge of a young woman.
Derived terms
- bearded griffin (Gypaetus barbatus)
- griffinish
- griffinism
Descendants
- Chinese Pidgin English: griffin
Translations
References
Anagrams
- riffing
Chinese Pidgin English
Etymology
From English griffin (“newcomer to India”).
Noun
griffin
- A person who spent less than a year in China.
- A racing pony in its first season.
References
- Gow, W. S. P. (1924) Gow’s Guide to Shanghai, 1924: A Complete, Concise and Accurate Handbook of the City and District, Especially Compiled for the Use of Tourists and Commercial Visitors to the Far East, Shanghai, page 105:
- Griffin: (Anglo-Indian) a newcomer. One with less than a years’[sic] residence in China. Also a racing pony in his first season. (“China ponies” are bred in Mongolia and brought down annually).
griffin From the web:
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- french griffon
- griffin what they see
- griffin what they see song
sphinx
English
Etymology
Pronunciation
- enPR: sf?ngks, IPA(key): /sf??ks/
- Rhymes: -??ks
Noun
sphinx (plural sphinxes or sphinges)
- (mythology) A creature with the head of a person and the body of an animal (commonly a lion).
- A person who keeps his/her thoughts and intentions secret; an enigmatic person.
- (dated) A mandrill, Mandrillus sphinx, formerly classified a baboon, and called sphinx baboon.
- A sphinx moth.
- (rare) A sphincter.
- 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), page 836:
- Constance said boastfully, ‘My sphinxes are strong and in good repair. I order you to come.’
- 1982, Lawrence Durrell, Constance, Faber & Faber 2004 (Avignon Quintet), page 836:
Synonyms
- (person who keeps his/her thoughts and intentions secret): enigma
Hyponyms
- androsphinx
- criosphinx
- gynosphinx
Derived terms
- sphinx moth
- sphingian
Translations
See also
- chimera
Verb
sphinx (third-person singular simple present sphinxes, present participle sphinxing, simple past and past participle sphinxed)
- To decorate with sphinxes
- a marble sphinxed chimney-piece
- To adopt the posture of the Sphinx.
- A hot lion with a very bloated stomach ... will adopt either a sphinxed or a squatting posture which takes some of the weight off its belly.
- Several animals maintained either a crouched ... or a sphinxing posture (abdomen on the floor)
- To be inscrutable, often through silence
- (1900) The sphinxèd riddle of the Universe / Nature's unsolved enigma, who may prove?
- (1933) Janet Gaynor, so they tell, is sphinxing it and has gone into a Retirement, with "Nothing to Say — Please Go Away" written on the doormat.
- (1934) The men of science will climb grassy hillsides of [Easter] island to peer at hundreds of great stone faces that have so far out-sphinxed the sphinx in determined silence about the past.
- (1954) "What are you two sphinxing about?" said Jessica, but her husband said Never mind
- (1964) What with Fisher whole-hogging on one side, and K. of K. sphinxing on the other, Churchill had his work cut out to get any sort of agreement at all.
- To make one guess at the unknowable
- (1933) Perhaps Nature is sphinxing us on purpose. Whatever her objects may be, perhaps she gets her work done better when she appeals to our gambling instincts. If you knew for certain exactly how your marriage was going to turn out ...
- To befuddle
- (2010) She swiveled and sphinxed Giles. 'And you, I suppose you've never been here either?' Giles squirmed. 'Well, I – that is, Miss Wh—, I mean, Miss Taylor, I –' He looked to me for rescue.
- For the feminine to co-opt, dominate, or devour the masculine, especially from a paranoid fear of this happening
- (1986) modernism's fears of being sphinxed by a feminized mass culture
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin sphinx.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /sf??ks/
Noun
sphinx m (plural sphinx)
- sphinx
Further reading
- “sphinx” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Latin
Etymology
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /sp?inks/, [s?p???ks?]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /sfinks/, [sfi?ks]
Noun
sphinx f (genitive sphingis); third declension
- sphinx
Declension
Third-declension noun.
References
- sphinx in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition, 1883–1887)
- sphinx in The Perseus Project (1999) Perseus Encyclopedia?[1]
- sphinx in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
- sphinx in William Smith, editor (1848) A Dictionary of Greek Biography and Mythology, London: John Murray
sphinx From the web:
- what sphinx of cement and aluminum
- what sphinx means
- what sphinxes employ the players enjoy
- what sphinx originally looked like
- what sphinx riddle
- what sphinx of cement and aluminium
- what sphinx guard
- what sphinx in spanish
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