Cimmerian
Americanadjective
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Classical Mythology. of, relating to, or suggestive of a northern people believed to dwell in perpetual darkness.
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very dark; gloomy.
deep, Cimmerian caverns.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- Cimmerianism noun
Etymology
Origin of Cimmerian
First recorded in 1580–1600; from the Latin plural noun Cimmeriī, from the Greek plural noun Kimmérioi, a mythical people mentioned in book 11 of the Odyssey as living at the edge of Oceanus, the stream that surrounds the earth, in a city wrapped in mist and fog, where the sun never shines, near the entrance to Hades
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Schwarzenegger is almost as much of a self-made man as the great Cimmerian himself.
From The Guardian • Jan. 18, 2013
John Milius's 1982 fantasy epic Conan the Barbarian cast the former Mr Olympia as Robert E Howard's unstoppable Cimmerian warrior.
From The Guardian • Jan. 18, 2013
He is stoic about the deaths of friends and relatives and accepts as "part of the game" the high possibility that he may be crushed, burned, suffocated or drowned in his own Cimmerian tomb.
From Time Magazine Archive
Before he even had time to yell, he dropped like a rock into the Cimmerian bowels of the glacier.
From "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer
Cimmerian, sim-ē′ri-an, adj. relating to the Cimmerii, a tribe fabled to have lived in perpetual darkness: extremely dark.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
