Proserpina

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. The goddess of springtime, queen of the underworld and the wife of Pluto; the Roman equivalent of Persephone.
  2. 26 Proserpina, a main-belt asteroid.
  3. A fictitious planet beyond Pluto.

Pronunciation

/prəʊˈsɜːpɪnə/ /proʊˈsɝpɪnə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Eleanorrrrrrrrrr-Proserpina.wav

Word forms

Proserpina

Etymology

From Latin Prōserpina from Ancient Greek Περσεφόνη (Persephónē) by metathesis perhaps first in Magna Graecia via a Sicilian Doric Greek Προσερπίνα (Proserpína) or Ionic Greek Προσερπίνη (Proserpínē), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *pers-o- (“sheaf of corn, grain, seed”) and *gʷʰn̥-t- (“to strike”), meaning 'grain-thresher' or 'She-who-threshes-the-grain'.

Synonyms

26 Proserpina

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.