Plutonian en · ADJ · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- (Southern-England) audio
- /pluːˈtəʊ.nɪ.ən/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /pluˈtoʊ.ni.ən/ (General-American)
Etymology
The adjective is derived from Latin Plūtōnius (“of or relating to Pluto, Greek and Roman god of the underworld”) + -an (suffix forming adjectives). Plūtōnius is from Ancient Greek Πλουτώνιος (Ploutṓnios, “of or relating to Pluto”), from Πλούτων (Ploútōn, “Pluto”) (from πλοῦτος (ploûtos, “riches, wealth”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to fly; to flow; to run”)) + -ων (-ōn)) + -ιος (-ios, suffix forming adjectives). The English word is cognate with Middle French plutonien (modern French plutonien). The noun is derived from the adjective.
Meanings
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(Greek, Roman) Of or relating to Pluto, the Greek and Roman god of the underworld; demonic, infernal.
You rise by candle-light or gaslight, swearing / There never was a climate made like ours; / If rashly you go out to take an airing, / The soot-flakes come in black Plutonian show'rs.
1882 December 30, “A London Fog”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume 83, London: Published at the office, 85, Fleet Street, →OCLC, page 301, column 1:["]Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the Nightly shore— / Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!" / Quoth the raven, "Nevermore."
1845 February, — Quarles [pseudonym; Edgar Allan Poe], “The Raven”, in The American Review, volume I, number II, New York, N.Y.; London: Wiley & Putnam, […], →OCLC, page 144:Cotopaxi is striking not only because it looks like a science fiction conception of another planet; it also is the least realistic among [Frederic Edwin] Church's paintings of the area. […] Below the fiery sun is a lake with a barren shore. As such, the sun hangs over a Plutonian landscape.
2008, Rodrigo Lazo, “The Ends of Enchantment: Douglass, Melville, and U.S. Expansionism in the Americas”, in Robert S[teven] Levine, Samuel Otter, editors, Frederick Douglass & Herman Melville: Essays in Relation, Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, →ISBN, part I (Literary and Cultural Geographies), page 210:[…] he through the midſt unmarkt, / In ſhew Plebeian Angel militant / Of loweſt order, paſt; and from the dore / Of that Plutonian Hall, inviſible / Aſcended his high Throne, […]
1674, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], 2nd edition, London: […] S[amuel] Simmons […], →OCLC, page 264:
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(broadly) Of, relating to, or having characteristics associated with the underworld; dark, gloomy; mournful.
I am dying, Egypt, dying, / Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast, / And the dark Plutonian shadows / Gather on the evening blast; […]
1850–1860, William H[aines] Lytle, “Antony and Cleopatra”, in William T[urner] Coggeshall, editor, The Poets and Poetry of the West: With Biographical and Critical Notes, Columbus, Oh.: Follett, Foster and Company, published 1860, →OCLC, page 566, column 1:Yet when [Frank] Brangwyn immortalised Cannon Street Station, most Plutonian of London terminals, they began to admire.
1950, Hamilton Ellis [i.e., Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis], Four Main Lines, London: George Allen & Unwin, →OCLC, page 11:
- (broadly) Synonym of plutonic (“of or pertaining to rocks formed deep in the Earth's crust, rather than by volcanoes at the surface of the Earth”).
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(broadly, historical) Synonym of plutonic (“of, pertaining to, or supporting plutonism, the theory that the rocks of the Earth were formed in fire by volcanic activity, with a continuing gradual process of weathering and erosion, then deposited on the sea bed, re-formed into layers of sedimentary rock by heat and pressure, and raised again”).
One system, now called the Plutonian, regards, the earth's crust on which we now live, as the debris of two former worlds, and our present continents as the elevations of the bottom of the sea by subterranean heat. If this theory be founded on fact, why do not our rocks present us with beds of shell-fish in families as are now living at the bottom of the sea?
1822, Joseph Sutcliffe, The Geology of the Avon, being an Enquiry into the Order of the Strata and Mineral Productions of the District Washed by Its Streams, Bristol: Printed by Philip Rose, […]; for Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, […]; and Thomas Blanchard, […], →OCLC, pages 3–4:The country around Aberdeen is almost entirely composed of primitive rocks. Of these there are two sets, Neptunian and Plutonian. […] the Plutonian rocks are granite, with feldspar, or granitic porphyry. […] the great bodies of Plutonian granite, as those exposed in the celebrated granite quarries, render it probable that the stratified Neptunian rocks owe much of their contorted and broken aspect, and also, in some degree, their position, to the action of this igneous rock.
1830 July–September, “Notes. … 2. Walk from Aberdeen to Castleton of Braemar—Country around Castleton—From Castleton to Spittal of Glen Shee and Blair Gowrie. …”, in Robert Jameson, editor, The Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, Exhibiting a View of the Progressive Discoveries and Improvements in the Sciences and the Arts, Edinburgh: Printed for Adam Black, […]; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green, →OCLC, pages 269–270:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most Plutonian | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more Plutonian | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| plutonian | alternative | lexicographic |
Relateds
Hadean · Plutonic · Plutonical · Ploutonian
Synonyms
chapfallen · heartsick · Plutonic · low · dark · lachrymose · Plutonian · dejected · sorrowsome · dull · plaintive · sullen · tenebrous · twilightish · mopey · low-spirited · cheerless · somber · atrabilious · plutonic · tenebrose · grief-stricken · gloomy · woe · triste · blear · downcast · down · unlively · unhappy · wretched · gloomy · dimpsy · tristful · mournful · dismal · disconsolate · threnetic · Plutonic · Tartarean · Plutonical · sorrowful · tenebrous · woebegone · atrabiliary · moody · caliginous · miserable · heartsore · Plutonian · solemn · melancholic · uncheery · uncheerful · murky · ruthful · cimmerian · heavy-hearted · infernal · lumpish · abyssal · sombrous · Hadean · cut up · unconsolable · umbrageous · swarthy · mirksome · lightless · inconsolable · sombre · plutonic · bummed out · wistful · saddened · spiritless · crepuscular · dusky · shattered · helly · glum · dingy · grieving · leaden · querulous · crestfallen · sad · disheartened · doleful · dolesome · intrusive · fuliginous · saturnine · darkling · unilluminated · disgruntled · damp · blue · forlorn · down in the dumps · melancholic · Plutonic · murksome · woeful · elegiac · darksome · adumbral · joyless · melancholy · hellish · dull · blitheless · chopfallen · threnetical · morose · Acherontic · downsome · infelicitous · downhearted · dim · obscure · cimmerian · subtartarean · sorrow-ridden · lugubrious · down in the mouth · depressed · sunless · dismal · dispirited · despondent · Hadean · lamentful · passionate · plutonic · stygian · infernal · jawfallen · elegious · shady · stygian
Translations (14)
it plutoniano (of, pertaining to, or supporting plutonism — see also Plutonic) · es plutoniano (of or relating to Pluto, the Greek and Roman god of the underworld) · fr plutonique (of, pertaining to, or supporting plutonism — see also Plutonic) · fr plutonien (of or relating to Pluto, the Greek and Roman god of the underworld) · de plutonisch (of, pertaining to, or supporting plutonism — see also Plutonic) · cs plutský (of, relating to, or having characteristics associated with the underworld — see also gloomy, mournful) · fr plutonien (of, pertaining to, or supporting plutonism — see also Plutonic) · fi Plutoniin liittyvä (of or relating to Pluto, the Greek and Roman god of the underworld) · pt plutónico (of or relating to Pluto, the Greek and Roman god of the underworld) · it plutoniano (of or relating to Pluto, the Greek and Roman god of the underworld) · gl plutónico (of, pertaining to, or supporting plutonism — see also Plutonic) · es plutoniano (of, pertaining to, or supporting plutonism — see also Plutonic) · cs plutonský (of, relating to, or having characteristics associated with the underworld — see also gloomy, mournful) · es plutónico (of, pertaining to, or supporting plutonism — see also Plutonic)