mythology

English

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Pronunciation

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  • (RP) enPR: mĭthôlôjē, IPA: /mɪˈθɒlədʒi/
  • (US) IPA: /mɪˈθɑːlədʒi/
  • Rhymes: -ɒlədʒi

Etymology

First attested in English in 1412. From Middle French mythologie, from Latin mythologia, from Ancient Greek μυθολογία (muthologia, “legend”) μυθολογέω (muthologeō, “I tell tales”), from μυθολόγος (muthologos, “legend”), from μῦθος (muthos, “story”) + λέγω (legō, “I say”).

Noun

mythology (countable and uncountable; plural mythologies)

  1. (countable and uncountable) The collection of myths of a people, concerning the origin of the people, history, deities, ancestors and heroes.
  2. (countable and uncountable) A similar body of myths concerning an event, person or institution.
    • 2003, Peter Utgaard, Remembering & Forgetting Nazism: Education, National Identity, and the Victim Myth in Postwar Austria, Berghahn Books, ISBN 978-1-57181-187-5, page x:
      This program to distinguish Austria from Germany was important to building a new Austria, but it also indirectly contributed to victim mythology by implying that participation in the Nazi war of conquest was antithetical to Austrian identity.
  3. (countable and uncountable) Pervasive elements of a fictional universe that resemble a mythological universe.
    • 2000 April 28, Caryn James (?), As Scheherazade Was Saying . . ., in The New York Times, page E31, reproduced in The New York Times Television Reviews 2000, Routledge (2001), ISBN 978-1-57958-060-5, page 198:
      This tongue-in-cheek episode is especially fun for people who don’t take their “X-Files” mythology seriously.
  4. (uncountable) The systematic collection and study of myths.

Derived terms

Translations

myths of a people
myths concerning an event, person or institution
collection and study of myths

See also

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Last modified on 20 May 2013, at 12:40