Word.ws English Dictionary

Strephon

Strephon proper noun: a male given name from Ancient Greek.

Proper noun

Strephon (plural Strephons)

  1. (literary) A male given name from Ancient Greek.
    • To see her from her pillow rise,
      All reeking in a cloudy steam,
      Crack'd lips, foul teeth, and gummy eyes,1719, Jonathan Swift, The progress of Beauty
    • As when two doves, or two wood-pigeons, or as when Strephon and Phyllis (for that comes nearest to the mark) are retired into some pleasant solitary grove, to enjoy the delightful conversation of Love[…]1749, Henry Fielding, chapter IX, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book VI

Noun

Strephon (plural Strephons)

  1. (literary) A male lover.
    • […] those palmy days of pastoral revelry;—when every lover was a Damon or a Strephon, and his beloved a Delia or a Celia.1855, Frederick Lawrence, The life of Henry Fielding
    • I am still sick with his sentimentality of a Strephon. He is a flippant coxcomb.1862, Theodore Winthrop, Edwin Brothertoft

Strephon meaning in Tamil

Strephon in Tamil

ஆர்வக் காதலர்

Forms of Strephon

Proper noun
pluralStrephons
Noun
pluralStrephons

Origin of Strephon

From Ancient Greek στρέφων (stréphōn), the active present participle of Ancient Greek στρέφω (stréphō, “to twist, to avert”, verb), chiefly from its use as the name of a rustic lover in Sir Philip Sidney's 1593 pastoral romance The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia.

Questions about Strephon

What does Strephon mean?
Strephon means a male given name from Ancient Greek.
What is Strephon in Tamil?
Strephon in Tamil is ஆர்வக் காதலர். See Strephon meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is Strephon?
Strephon can be a proper noun or a noun.

Words near Strephon in the dictionary

  1. strep throat
  2. strepadhesin
  3. strepavidin
  4. strepent
  5. streperous
  6. Strephon
  7. Strephons
  8. strephosymbolia
  9. strepitant
  10. strepitantly
  11. strepitous

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Strephon (page history and authors); strephon (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “Strephon.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/strephon. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.