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View synonyms for athanasia

athanasia

[ ath-uh-ney-zhuh ]

noun

  1. deathlessness; immortality.


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Word History and Origins

Origin of athanasia1

1820–30; < Greek athanasía, equivalent to athánat ( os ) deathless ( a- a- 6 + thánatos death) + -ia -ia, with ti > si
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Example Sentences

Wendy Stewart, who was picked to run commercial banking, and Holly O’Neill, who will lead retail banking, will report to Mr. Athanasia.

It also gave more responsibilities to Dean Athanasia, who runs the consumer-banking division from Boston.

Dean Athanasia, the head of Bank of America’s consumer and small business group, sent a memo to employees on Friday pledging to “enhance” the program soon “to accommodate more and more of our small-business clients.”

The bank has focused on its business customers with loans first but will be expanding access quickly, Dean Athanasia, the head of Bank of America’s consumer business, said in a note to employees.

“We will expand our process soon,” Athanasia said.

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More About Athanasia

What is athanasia?

Athanasia is deathlessness or immortality, as in The trouble with athanasia is that when you live forever, life can get pretty boring.

An uncommon term, athanasia refers to the inability to die or the possession of eternal life. Many ancient mythologies contain depictions of athanasia, especially Greek, which the term comes from. In some stories, especially those containing vampires, athanasia is an eternal youth. The vampire will never grow old or die of old age but can die in other ways. Athanasia is used in titles of games and fiction that deal with immortality. 

Athanasia is also used as a personal name, especially for Greek women, and is the name of a genus of flowering plants native to Africa. The plants have yellow flowers and are related to daisies.

Sometimes athanasia is used figuratively to mean an impossibly long time.

Example: Rachel kept expecting the lead character to die during the battle scenes, but apparently he has athanasia and walks away without a scratch.

Where does athanasia come from?

The first records of the term athanasia come from around the 1820s. It ultimately comes from the Greek athánatos, meaning “deathless.” In Greek, the root word thánatos means “death” and is also the root of the term euthanasia, meaning “mercy killing” or “painless death.” The eu- in this case means “good.” 

 The term athanasian is not used as athanasia’s adjective form despite its Greek linguistic roots. Athanasian is used instead to refer to something related to Athanasius of Alexandria, a Christian saint, and is capitalized.

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What are some other forms related to athanasia?

  • athanasy (alternative spelling)

What are some synonyms for athanasia?

What are some words that share a root or word element with athanasia

What are some words that often get used in discussing athanasia?

What are some words athanasia may be commonly confused with?

How is athanasia used in real life?

Athanasia is normally used in mythology, folklore, or fiction to mean immortality.

 

 

Try using athanasia!

Is athanasia used correctly in the following sentence?

“Turtles can live so long that it might appear they have athanasia.”

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