Pronounced: YOO-burr-us, adj
Notes: Not what I thought
Yesterday’s word
The word Apollonian means
- of, relating to, or resembling the god Apollo
- harmonious, measured, ordered, or balanced in character
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s (but see the comments below)
Background / Comments
The first definition is the obvious one. I thought that the second definition seemed strange, especially as Apollo was not necessarily known for his balance of character. The ancient Greeks regarded Apollo as the perfection of youthful manhood, and thus, the first meaning came into being. The second meaning came about from the word of Nietzsche and other German scholars in the 1800s used Apollonian in contrast with Dionysian to contrast the forces of calm rationality to the forces that were frenzied, uninhibited, and instinctive.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 