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Mar 11, 2022
This week’s theme
Overachievers from mythology

This week’s words
aphrodisiac
titanic
borasco
vulcanic
gorgonian

gorgonian
Medusa
Image: The Universal Anthology, 1890s

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

gorgonian

PRONUNCIATION:
(gor-GOH-nee-uhn)

MEANING:
adjective: Terrible; repulsive.
noun: Any of various corals having a hard, treelike skeleton.

ETYMOLOGY:
After Gorgon, any of the three monstrous sisters in Greek mythology, who had snakes for hair: Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa. Earliest documented use: 1616. See also, gorgonize.

USAGE:
“Or had that long, highpitched, inhuman cry been real? A gorgonian scream out in the hills, echoing off the unseen moons?”
Anthony Huso; The Last Page; Tom Doherty; 2010.

See more usage examples of gorgonian in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

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