polyphiloprogenitive

Pronounced: pol-ee-fi-luh-pro-JEN-uh-tiv, adj

Notes: My mind boggled at the word length, but you may be able to work out the meaning

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Yesterday’s word

The word sibyl means

• prophetess
• fortune-teller

First usage

Our word came into English in the middle to late 1200s

Background / Comments

Many ancient cultures have various women through whom the gods spoke. If you think that this sounds similar to a meaning of “oracle”, you are right, but there are some differences. A sibyl is female, whereas an “oracle” can be male or female. In addition, one finds an “oracle” at a shrine of a temple, but a sibyl may be anywhere. A famous sibyl was the Sibyl of Cumae in Italy, a withered crone who lived in a cave. There were twelve volumes of her prophecies – during the times of the Romans, three of these volumes remained and were consulted by the Romans during national emergencies. This famous sibyl is one of five depicted by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (and I didn’t know that the Sistine Chapel contained any sibyls). Our word came from the Middle English word Sibil, which came from the Latin word Sibilla, which came from the Greek word Síbylla, who is a person from Greek mythology: an Asian maiden, a lover of Apollo, from whom she received the gifts of prophecy and a long life.