Dictionary

ouroboros en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Southern-England) audio
• /(j)ʊ(ə)rə(ʊ)ˈborəs/
• /ˌorəˈboroʊs/
• /uːˈrɒbərəs/
• o͞o-rə-bŏrʹ-əs
• /uːˈrɒbəˌrɒs/
• o͞o-rŏbʹə-rŏs
• /ˌuːrəˈbɒrəs/
• /ˌorəˈborəs/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁ers-der. Ancient Greek οὐρά (ourá) Proto-Indo-European *gʷerh₃- Proto-Indo-European *-sḱéti Proto-Indo-European *gʷi-gʷr̥h₃-sḱé-ti Proto-Hellenic *gʷigʷrṓskō Ancient Greek βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō)der. Ancient Greek -βόρος (-bóros) Ancient Greek οὐροβόρος (ourobóros)bor. English ouroboros From Ancient Greek οὐροβόρος (ourobóros, “tail-devouring”, a compound of οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) + -βόρος (-bóros, “-devouring”, which is derived from the verb βιβρώσκω (bibrṓskō, “to eat up”))).

Meanings

1. A serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail, a representation of the continuous cycle of life and death.
   • Khepera eating his own seed is a model of Romantic creativity, where the self is isolated and sexually dual. Khepera bent over himself is a uroboros, the serpent eating its own tail, a magic circle of regeneration and rebirth. The uroboros is the prehistoric track of natural cycle, from which Judaism and Hellenism make a conceptual break. 1990, Camille Paglia, Sexual Personae, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 41:
   • One myth speaks of Ouroboros, a serpent-like creature that survived and regenerated itself by eating only its own tail. By neither taking from nor adding to its environment, this creature was said to be completely environmentally benign and self-sufficient. 2004, Adrian Bejan et al., Porous and Complex Flow Structures in Modern Technologies, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 121:
   • First, the snake has not caught its tail—the ouroboros figure is uncompleted. Blake executed fully formed ouroboros figures for the verso of this Night Thoughts page and for a later passage (6:690-92), and was familiar with numerous full ouroboros figures from contemporary and earlier sources […] 2013, Jackie DiSalvo, G. A. Rosso, Christopher Z. Hobson eds., Blake, Politics, and History, Routledge, →ISBN:
   • The alchemists were fond of picturing their opus as a circulatory process, as a circular distillation or as the uroboros, the snake biting its own tail, and they made innumerable pictures of this process. 1968 [1951], R. F. C. Hull, transl., Aion […] (The Collected Works of C. G. Jung), 2nd edition, volume 9.2, Princeton University Press, translation of original by C. G. Jung, →ISBN, page 264:
2. (broadly) Anything of a circular or recursive nature.
   • Like an ouroboros, the story created and informed by the writer’s own experience suddenly flipped back on itself, Childress’s life now reflecting the story rather than the other way around. 2019 March 6, Soraya Roberts, “Reality Bites Captured Gen X With Perfect Irony”, in The Atlantic:
   • The result is a statistical ouroboros: a self-reinforcing discrimination machine that amplifies social inequalities under the guise of technical neutrality. 2021, Kate Crawford, chapter 4, in Atlas of AI […] , →ISBN:

Forms

Deriveds

ouroboric

Relateds

autocannibalism

Translations (36)

ko 우로보로스 (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · et uroboros (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · az uroboros (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · ml ഊറൊബോറസ് (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · eo uroboro (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · ar أُورُبُورُوس (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · it uroboro (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · de Uroboros (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · es pescadilla que se muerde la cola (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · fa اوروبروس (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · hi ऊरोबोरोस (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · cs úroboros (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · gl uróboros (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · ru уробо́рос (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · fr ouroboros (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · hy ուրոբորոս (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · pt uróboro (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · ur اوروبورس (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · lt uroboras (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · ro uroborus (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · es uróboro (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · he אורובורוס (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · fi ouroboros (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · sv ouroboros (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · pl uroboros (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · sk uroboros (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · ja ウロボロス (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · hu uroborosz (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · ca uròbor (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · el ουροβόρος (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · hy օրոբորոս (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · cmn 銜尾蛇 /衔尾蛇 (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · bg уроборос (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · es ouroboro (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · uk уробо́рос (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail) · la ūroborus (a serpent, dragon or worm that eats its own tail)

wikipedia: Theodoros Pelecanos · wikipedia: Synesius