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Make Your Point > Archived Issues > STYGIAN

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pronounce STYGIAN:

STIDGE ee un
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connect this word to others:

Let's add Stygian to our collection of adjectives from classical mythology:

1. Something dark and gloomy, like a mythic god of the underworld, is Pl____ian.

2. Something pointless and strenuous, like the mythic act of rolling a rock up a hill forever, is S_sy____n.

3. Something majestic, like the god of the sky, or jolly, supposedly like someone born under the planet named for him, is j_v_al.

4. Someone extremely important or famous (or unsinkable?) is t_t__ic, like a mythic race of powerful giants.

Can you think of more?

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)  

definition:

Let's start with the word "Styx," pronounced the same as "sticks," which traces back through Latin to a Greek word that various sources define as "shuddering," "gloomy," and "hateful."

In myth, Styx is a river: one on which the souls of the dead travel to the underworld.

(Source)

And since the 1300s in English, people have "sworn by Styx" or "sworn on the river Styx" to make a serious promise or statement, and we've compared things that are dark, gloomy, and dreadful to Styx. Here's an example from William Makepeace Thackeray (1852): "He told a falsehood as black as Styx."

By the 1500s, the adjective "Stygian" arose, and today we still call things Stygian when they're dark, gloomy, and dreadful, like the mythic river that carries the dead to the underworld.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective, the proper kind, so you capitalize it: "a Stygian riverbank;" "The painting was Stygian."

Other forms: 

The noun is "Styx," as in "a painting as dark as Styx."

how to use it:

Pick the rare, academic, literary word "Stygian" when you want to sound serious and formal as you describe something dark, murky, dismal, and even hellish.

You might talk about Stygian waters, caves, shadows, halls, paintings, songs, travels, journeys, moods, nights, thoughts, dreams, darkness, blackness, or gloom.

And I recommend capitalizing it, since most writers who use it do, and since it refers to the proper name of a specific mythic river.

examples:

(Source)

"At the boulder-strewn edge of the Erta Ale volcano in Ethiopia, the viewer peers into red hellfire surrounded by Stygian blackness." 
   — Michael Pollak, New York Times, 11 August 2014

"The way in which the light bulb switched on an entire industry is the stuff of sensation. One day, it seems, Britain was all tallow, town gas, smoke and Stygian gloom; before long it was as bright as Blackpool illuminations." 
  — Jonathan Glancey, The Guardian, 1 April 2011

has this page helped you understand "Stygian"?

   

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.


study it:

Explain the meaning of "Stygian" without saying "gloomy" or "tenebrous."

try it out:

From Ransom Riggs's novel Hollow City:

"Crossing a walled river of Stygian sludge, we entered a district of factories and workhouses, of smokestacks belching black stuff into the sky."

I can immediately picture that scene, and I bet you can, also. It's so dark!

With this scene in mind as an example, describe another scene from a book, a show, or a movie that's so dark, gloomy, and dreadful both visually and emotionally that you'd call it Stygian.

The scene that comes to mind for me is from Les Miserables, when Valjean is trudging through the dim sewers carrying his injured, unconscious friend, sometimes having to wade through sewage so deep that it nearly covers his face. So Stygian.




before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Idiom Savant."

Flex your facility with familiar phrases by quickly pairing them off with words closely associated in meaning.

For example, you might pair the idiom "a cat has nine lives" with the word "resilient;" "water under the bridge" with "inconsequential;" and "when it rains, it pours" with "proliferate."

Try these today:

Pair these idioms...

   1. down the rabbit hole
   2. head in the clouds
   3. love at first sight
   4. no harm, no foul
   5. you and me both

With these words...

   A. arresting
   B. commiserate
   C. negligible
   D. preoccupy
   E. quixotic

To see the answers, scroll all the way down. 

review this word:

1. Opposites of STYGIAN include

A. FULL, CURVED, and PLUMP.
B. LOUD, RHYTHMIC, and MUSICAL.
C. BRIGHT, CHEERFUL, and HEAVENLY.

2. In a review, Maddy Costa describes a musician who appears onstage "in Stygian _____" to perform a piece titled "_____."

A. gloom .. Death Will Come and Will Wear Your Eyes
B. glee .. Apparently Hover Boards Don't Work On Water
C. splendor .. You Probably Couldn't See For The Lights But You Were Staring Straight At Me




Answers to the review questions:
1. C
2. A

From the game:

   1. down the rabbit hole: preoccupy
   2. head in the clouds: quixotic
   3. love at first sight: arresting
   4. no harm, no foul: negligible
   5. you and me both: commiserate

Are your answers different? No worries, as long as you can explain the connections you see.


a final word:


I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.


From my blog:
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A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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