parnassian
parnassian noun: a papilionid butterfly of the holarctic alpine genus Parnassius or the subfamily Parnassiinae; an apollo butterfly.
Noun (1)
parnassian (plural parnassians)
- A papilionid butterfly of the holarctic alpine genus Parnassius or the subfamily Parnassiinae; an apollo butterfly.
Adjective (1)
parnassian (not comparable)
- Of, relating to, or designating papilionid butterflies of the genus Parnassius or the subfamily Parnassiinae, consisting of the apollo butterflies.
Adjective (2) capitalized: Parnassian
Parnassian (comparative more Parnassian, superlative most Parnassian)
- Of or relating to Parnassus, as the source of literary (especially poetic) inspiration; (hence) of or belonging to poetry.
- King Atlas called straight to minde an auncient prophesie Made by Parnassian Themys, which this sentence did implie: The time shall one day, Atlas, come in which thy golden tree Shall of hir fayre and precious fruite dispoyld and robbed bee.1565, Arthur Golding, The Fyrst Fower Bookes of P. Ovidius Nasos Worke, Entitled Metamorphosis, Translated Oute of Latin into Englishe Meter, London: W. Seres, translation of Metamorphoses by Publius...
- There is a certain poetic ground, on which a man cannot tread without feelings that enlarge the heart: the causes of human depravity vanish before the romantic enthusiasm he professes, and many who are not able to reach the Parnassian heights, may yet approach so near as to be bettered by the air...1771, Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling, London: Cassell, published 1886, page 119
- Synonyms:
- poetic
- Of or relating to a style of poetry or language which can only be created by poets, but not in the language of inspiration.
- […] at last, — this is the point to be marked, - they can see things in this Parnassian way and describe them in this Parnassian tongue, without further effort of inspiration.1864, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and prose, Penguin Books, published 1954, page 157
- But in Parnassian pieces you feel that if you were the poet you could have gone on as he has done, you see yourself doing it, only with the difference that if you actually try you find you cannot write his Parnassian.1864, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Poems and prose, Penguin Books, published 1954, page 158
- Of or relating to the Parnassianism movement of French poetry in the years 1850 to 1900, whose adherents rejected Romanticism and instead favored classicism with its formal structure and emotional detachment.
- The Parnassian theory of art is mere imbecility.1895, Degeneration, New York: D. Appleton and Company, translation of Entartung by Max Simon Nordau, page 270
Noun (2) capitalized: Parnassian
Parnassian (plural Parnassians)
- A poet.
- A French poet of the Parnassianism movement.
Synonyms of parnassian
Forms of parnassian
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | parnassians |
| plural | Parnassians |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more Parnassian |
| superlative | most Parnassian |
Origin of parnassian
From Parnassus, from Latin Parnassus, from Ancient Greek Παρνασσός (Parnassós).
Words formed from parnassian
Questions about parnassian
- What does parnassian mean?
- Parnassian means a papilionid butterfly of the holarctic alpine genus Parnassius or the subfamily Parnassiinae; an apollo butterfly.
- What part of speech is parnassian?
- Parnassian can be a noun or an adjective.
- What is the plural of parnassian?
- The plural of parnassian is parnassians.
Words near parnassian in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: parnassian (page history and authors); Parnassian (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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Cite this entry: “parnassian.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/parnassian. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.