Word.ws English Dictionary

Corydon

Corydon proper noun: a male given name from Greek, notably used as a stock name for a shepherd in pastorals, in particular a shepherd whose love for a boy is described in Virgil's Eclogues.

Proper noun

Corydon

  1. (literary) A male given name from Greek, notably used as a stock name for a shepherd in pastorals, in particular a shepherd whose love for a boy is described in Virgil's Eclogues.
    • They give voice to Corydon′s passion; they confront in their own culture the constraints that hedge his passion in.1994, Bruce R. Smith, Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare's England: A Cultural Poetics, page 92
    • Byron shocked regency England by citing it^([Virgil's second eclogue]) in the opening canto of Don Juan, and Andre Gide gave the title Corydon to the controversial defense of homosexuality he published in 1924.
    • Virgil depicts Corydon’s passion with psychological realism and a touch of wry irony.2006, Louis Crompton, Homosexuality and Civilization, page 92
  2. A town, the county seat of Harrison County, Indiana, also located in Harrison Township.
  3. A small city, the county seat of Wayne County, Iowa.
  4. A town in Henderson County, Kentucky.

Origin of Corydon

From Ancient Greek κόρυδος (kórudos, “crested lark”).

Questions about Corydon

What does Corydon mean?
Corydon means a male given name from Greek, notably used as a stock name for a shepherd in pastorals, in particular a shepherd whose love for a boy is described in Virgil's Eclogues.
What part of speech is Corydon?
Corydon is a proper noun.

Words near Corydon in the dictionary

  1. corydalines
  2. corydalis
  3. corydalises
  4. corydalmine
  5. corydine
  6. Corydon
  7. corydoras
  8. Coryell
  9. Coryell County
  10. Coryells
  11. corylaceous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Corydon (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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