Dictionary

mythic en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• mĭth'ĭk
• /ˈmɪθɪk/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

1660s; from Latin mȳthicus or Ancient Greek μυθικός (muthikós); equivalent to myth + -ic.

Meanings

1. Mythical; existing in myth.
   • Whitehead-Gould has become a mythic presence in the case history fairy-tale: the personification of the selfish woman who went back on her promise to deliver up her child to an unfulfilled aspiring mother. 1998, Chloé Diepenbrock, Gynecology and textuality: popular representations, page 88:
   • By the mid-nineteenth century tartan had become a mythic material encompassing ideas of nationhood, clanship, and political allegiance seen through increasingly fashionable and spectacular forms. 2010, Networks of Design: Proceedings of the 2008 Annual International Conference of the Design History Society, page 161:
   • The ways in which Eastern Europe has become a mythic part of the Jewish past and not an imagined mythic home in the future is central to understanding how American Jews see themselves at home in America. 2008, Laurence Jay Silberstein, Postzionism: a reader, page 351:
   • Bellerophon attempts to become a mythic hero by perfectly imitating the actuarial program for mythic heroes. 2005, Gerhard Hoffmann, From modernism to postmodernism: concepts and strategies, page 294:
   • The Wyoming territories become a mythic space where character is tested and revealed and Good battles Evil. 2008, Peter Schmidt, Sitting in darkness: New South fiction, education, and the rise of Jim Crow, page 156:
2. Very rare.
3. (colloquial) Amazing, epic, legendary.
   • There's far more than just hot dogs to feast on too. The pizzas—gigantic, floppy, with a hyperreal waxy sheen—are mythic. They arrive exclusively in cheese, pepperoni, or supreme—the holy trinity—and will run you an eminently affordable $1.99 for a ridiculously huge wedge-shaped slice. 2023 September 6, Luke Winkie, “Our Greatest Fast-Food Joint Is Costco”, in Slate, archived from the original on 06 Sep 2023:
   • Had Pesky nailed Enos Slaughter in the 1946 Series, his throw home would have become a mythic moment. 2007, James Daniel Hardy, Baseball and the mythic moment: how we remember the national game, page 63:

Forms

Deriveds

mythicize · mythicist · psychomythic · nonmythic · antimythic · mythicization · mythicness · mythicism · semimythic · technomythic

Synonyms

sublime · delightful · awesomesauce · heavenly · dope · great · selcouth · surpassing · terrific · stupefying · goshwow · groovy · tight · marvellous · awesome · outstanding · extraordinary · major · lit · magnificent · heavenlike · unbelievable · excellent · majestic · enchanting · beatific · far out · amazing · wicked · bewildering · cool · inspiring · fire · mystifying · splendent · phenomenal · divine · sensational · gnarly · incredible · awe-inspiring · mythic · stupendous · goated · celestial · blissful · righteous · wonderful · grandiose · astounding · rad · grand · glorious · awful · hellagood · based · impressive · powerful · neat · wondrous · unreal