Myth
[mɪθ]
Definition
(noun.) a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people.
Checked by Alfreda--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A story of great but unknown age which originally embodied a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; an ancient legend of a god, a hero, the origin of a race, etc.; a wonder story of prehistoric origin; a popular fable which is, or has been, received as historical.
(n.) A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.
Editor: Tess
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Fable, invention, allegory, parable, fiction, fabulous story.
Typist: Merritt
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Fable, legend, parable, supposition, fiction, allegory, fabulous_story,fabrication
ANT:Fact, history, narrative
Typed by Alphonse
Definition
n. a fable a legend a fabulous narrative founded on a remote event esp. those made in the early period of a people's existence: an invented story: a falsehood.—adjs. Myth′ic -al relating to myths: fabulous: untrue.—adv. Myth′ically.—ns. Myth′icist Myth′iciser an adherent of the mythical theory; Myth′ist a maker of myths; Mythogen′esis the production of or the tendency to originate myths; Mythog′rapher a writer or narrator of myths; Mythog′raphy representation of myths in graphic or plastic art art-mythology; Mythol′oger Mytholō′gian a mythologist.—adjs. Mytholog′ic -al relating to mythology fabulous.—adv. Mytholog′ically.—v.t. Mythol′ogise to interpret or explain myths: to render mythical.—ns. Mythol′ogiser one who or that which mythologises; Mythol′ogist one versed in or who writes on mythology; Mythol′ogy the myths or stories of a country: a treatise regarding myths: a collection of myths: the science which investigates myths; Mython′omy the deductive and predictive stage of mythology; Myth′oplasm a narration of mere fable; Mythopœ′ist a myth-maker.—adjs. Mythopoet′ic Mythopœ′ic myth-making tending to generate myth.—n. Myth′us the same as myth:—pl. Myth′ī.—Mythical theory the theory of D. F. Strauss (1808-74) and his school that the Gospels are mainly a collection of myths developed during the first two centuries from the imagination of the followers of Jesus; Comparative mythology the science which investigates myths and seeks to relate those of different races.
Edited by Bertram
Examples
- Without a blush he informs us that this central gospel of the working class is simply a myth. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- It must not be supposed that respect for the myth is a discovery of Sorel's. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- This sense of mastery in a winning battle against the conditions of our life is, I believe, the social myth that will inspire our reconstructions. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- His lamp was pronounced a fake, a myth, possibly a momentary success magnified to the dignity of a permanent device by an overenthusiastic inventor. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Lady St. Simon is a myth. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- The myth is not one of the outgrown crudities of our pagan ancestors. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Every Greek state had a myth respecting its own origin; the Platonic republic may also have a tale of earthborn men. Plato. The Republic.
- Her myth ought to be taken to heart amongst the Tyburnians, the Belgravians--her story, and perhaps Becky's too. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- For it is Theodore Roosevelt who is actually attempting to make himself and his admirers the heroes of a new social myth. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- His doctrine of the social myth has seemed to many commentators one of those silly paradoxes that only a revolutionary syndicalist and Frenchman could have put forward. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- As in the Republic, there is a myth, describing, however, not a future, but a former existence of mankind. Plato. The Republic.
- All three are in the region of dramatic system-making and myth, to which probabilities are irrelevant. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- In such a test the Christian myth, for example, would be valued for its power of incarnating human desire. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Their creation myth proclaims: Merodach next arranged the stars in order, along with the sun and moon, and gave them laws which they were never to transgress. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- The heathen mythology, the Sybilline oracles, the myths of Plato, the dreams of Neo-Platonists are equally regarded by him as matter of fact. Plato. The Republic.
- Myths must be judged as instruments for acting upon present conditions; all discussion about the manner of applying them concretely to the course of history is senseless. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The philosophy of Heracleitus cannot be shown to be borrowed from Zoroaster, and still less the myths of Plato. Plato. The Republic.
- Revolutionary myths . Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The history of the world is full of great myths which have had the most concrete results. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- It is not all on the same plane; it easily passes from ideas to myths and fancies, from facts to figures of speech. Plato. The Republic.
- During their life these social myths contain a nation's finest energy. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- We, in the midst of our science and our rationalism, are still making myths, and their force is felt in the actual affairs of life. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
Edited by Dorothy