Saturday, July 9, 2011

emulous



emulous [ˈɛmyələs] a.

1.) Ambitiously desirous to equal or even to excel another; eager to emulate or vie with another; desirous of like excellence with another. Constructed with "of", as emulous of another's example or virtues.
2.) Vying with; rivaling; hence, contentious, envious (Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary).

Etymology: From Latin aemulus of the same meaning.

"αὐτὰρ ὃ μήνιε νηυσὶ παρήμενος ὠκυπόροισι
διογενὴς Πηλῆος υἱὸς πόδας ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεύς:
οὔτέ ποτ᾽ εἰς ἀγορὴν πωλέσκετο κυδιάνειραν
οὔτέ ποτ᾽ ἐς πόλεμον, ἀλλὰ φθινύθεσκε φίλον κῆρ
αὖθι μένων, ποθέεσκε δ᾽ ἀϋτήν τε πτόλεμόν τε" (Ἰλιάς, Ὅμηρος, ~850 BCE).

"Meanwhile unstirring and with smoldering heart,
the godlike athlete, son of Peleus, Prince
Akhilleus waited by his racing ships.
He would not enter the assembly
of emulous men, nor ever go to war,
but felt his valor staling in his breast
with idleness, and missed the cries of battle" (The Iliad of Homer, Robert Fitzgerald (trans.), 1974).

(Venus, Wounded by Diomedes, Returns to Olympus, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 1800)

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

on a bit of an iliad kick, are we?

DEZMOND said...

We do love Edmund's Iliad kick :)
Nice word today, and love the illustration too.

Chain said...

almost sounds like emo :)

shari said...

I am emulous of your vocabulary, but falling very short of succeeding.

Drake Sigar said...

Lasse - Except it doesn't.

The Onion Gypsy said...

great word of the day!

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Good word. Must be related to "emulate" too.

TIMMYTHEROBOT said...

good word, I think a lot of humanity is emulous

Zombie said...

every time I come to your blog I feel smarter! lol.

Bart said...

when the world stops producing hot chicks i'll run out then.

Anonymous said...

Lol I always learn new words here "). It feels like my old english class ")

MRanthrope said...

Emulous sounds like it should be a dirty/sexy word. "She became emulous at the sight of the ripped pool boy." something raunchy like that. hahah

D4 said...

I like how if I spell emulous the box tells me I'm spelling it wrong.

GMizzle said...

very nice

Garret said...

I didn't remember Latin being this unreadable since high school ;)

Unknown said...

New word. I love learning new words, especially on a Sunday morning. Plus the picture is beautiful.

Unknown said...

Looks like and means a portmanteau of 'emulate' and 'jealous'

Wolle said...

In German emulous means "begierig".

i said...

I guess I'm not alone in seeing the similarities between this and emulate/jealous. Definitely a word I can use in everyday conversation!

Magixx said...

lovely, keep it up!

Once Upon A Time... said...

re your comment about the "vampire" word: you're being sarcastic, right?

interesting word. being a very small island, i know alot of people being emulous towards one another haha! in Maltese, it is called "pika".

jos xx

dwizzt said...

nice blog. keep 'em coming man. :)

+follow

themajessty said...

good word!

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