Paphian

English

WOTD – 17 April 2011

Etymology

From Latin Paphius (from Ancient Greek Πάφος (Páphos, “Paphos”)) + English -an.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈpeɪfɪən/

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Adjective

Paphian (not comparable)

1. (literary) Pertaining to love or sexual desire, especially when illicit. [from 16th c.]
   • 1613, John Marston, William Barksted, The Insatiate Countess, act III scene 4:

     Cease admiration, sit to Cupid's feast, / The preparation to Paphian dalliance.

   • 1873, Anonymous (William Potter), The Romance of Lust; or, Early Experiences, volume I, William Lazenby:

     I lay, as it were, in the Paphian bower of bliss, in a state of exquisite sensations quite impossible to describe.

   • 1906, O. Henry, Man About Town:

     People passed, but they held me not. Paphian eyes rayed upon me, and left me unscathed.

2. Of or relating to Paphos, the mythical birthplace of the goddess of love on the island of Cyprus. [from 16th c.]
   • 1715–1720, Homer, [Alexander] Pope, transl., “Book III”, in The Iliad of Homer, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC:

     Then thus incensed, the Paphian queen replies: / "Obey the power from whom thy glories rise: / Should Venus leave thee, every charm must fly, / Fade from thy cheek, and languish in thy eye. / Cease to provoke me, lest I make thee more / The world’s aversion, than their love before; / Now the bright prize for which mankind engage, / Than, the sad victim, of the public rage."

   • 1791, Homer, W[illiam] Cowper, transl., “[The Odyssey.] Book VIII.”, in The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, Translated into Blank Verse, […], volume II, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC, page 181, lines 441–446:

     So ſaying, the might of Vulcan loos’d the ſnare, / And they, detain’d by thoſe coercive bands / No longer, from the couch upſtarting, flew, / Mars into Thrace, and to her Paphian home / The Queen of ſmiles, where deep in myrtle groves / Her incenſe-breathing altar ſtands embow’r’d.

Translations

pertaining to love or sexual desire, especially when illicit

• Russian: распу́тный (ru) (raspútnyj)

of or relating to Paphos

• Finnish: paphoslainen (fi)
• Spanish: pafio m

Noun

Paphian (plural Paphians)

1. (literary) A prostitute.
   • 1824, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto the Eleventh, XXX:

     They reach'd the hotel: forth stream'd from the front door / A tide of well-clad waiters, and around / The mob stood, and as usual several score / Of those pedestrian Paphians who abound / In decent London when the daylight's o'er; / Commodious but immoral, they are found / Useful, like Malthus, in promoting marriage.

   • 1980, Gene Wolfe, chapter 9, in The Shadow of the Torturer:

     A smile I had learned to know elsewhere lurked at one corner of my paphian's mouth.

2. A resident of Paphos.
   • 1854, Athenaeus of Naucratis, translated by Charles Duke Yonge, The Deipnosophists; or, Banquet of the Learned‎^[1], volume II, page 777:

     Then there is the mastus. Apollodorus the Cyrenæan, as Pamphilus says, states that this is a name given to drinking-cups by the Paphians.

Translations

(literary) a prostitute

• Finnish: kurtisaani (fi)
• Russian: куртиза́нка (ru) f (kurtizánka)

resident of Paphos

• Finnish: paphoslainen (fi)