pandemonian en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˌpæn.dɪˈməʊ.ni.ən/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˌpæn.dəˈmoʊ.ni.ən/ (General-American)
Etymology
From pandemonium + -an.
Meanings
-
Relating to, resembling, or characteristic of, a pandemonium.
Then, Gentlemen, said he, but not till then, shall you see hurled down from their lofty pedestals, those abominable reptiles, monsters, and demons, the gods of corruption, whose images, like the plagues of Egypt, now every where blast our light; whose pandemonian temples are seen in every rotten borough, and whose tottering cathedral, once a Christian chapel, stands near the Treasury.
1815 February 19, The Examiner, number 373, page 126, column 1:How could the private gentlemen of our Church militant here on earth march forth, when their Generals were afraid to attack the pandemonian army?
1799, Percival Stockdale, A Letter to the Honourable and Right Reverend the Lord Bishop of Durham; on the Slave-Trade: to Which Are Added Observations on the Late Parliamentary Debate on That Subject, Durham, pages 19–20:[…]it was a rush and a jump and a caper, a shooting out of legs and arms, hair dishevelled dancing about the face, dresses flying horizontal this way and that, hats whirling up to the ceiling and back, shouting and screaming, a pandemonian noise of thump, thump, thump, thump on the hard floor.
1870, “Life in the Latin Quarter”, in London Society. An Illustrated Magazine of Light and Amusing Literature for the Hours of Relaxation., volume XVII, London, page 542, column 2:We bid all the tricks, technicalities, and pettifoggeries, whereby law has been made the handmaid of OPPRESSION, be gone to the limbos of vanity and pandemonian mint which gave them birth.
1839 April 12, “Baseness of Ohio”, in The Liberator, volume IX, Boston, Mass., column 5:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most pandemonian | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more pandemonian | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |