Corinthian
/kəˈrɪnθiən/adjective
Of the most ornate classical order of architecture, whose capitals are carved with acanthus leaves.
The Greek roots
Literally: “of Corinth”
The story of the word
Vitruvius tells how the sculptor Callimachus saw a basket left on a girl's grave with an acanthus growing up around it, and made a capital of what he saw. The city's own name is older than Greek: the -nth- in Kórinthos, as in hyákinthos and Zákynthos, belongs to a language spoken in the peninsula before Greek arrived. Corinth's reputation for wealth and loose living gave English a second Corinthian, the rich young man about town, and a third in sport, where a Corinthian is an amateur who plays for nothing.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 16th century
Same family
In a sentence
Six Corinthian columns carry the portico.
The club still plays in a Corinthian spirit, which mostly means nobody appeals for offside.