Word of the Day: STYGIAN

As dark as the underworld

stygian (adj) - extremely dark; gloomy, dreary, or sunless; of or pertaining to the River Styx or the underworld [stij-ee-uhn]

BREAKDOWN: The word stygian calls back to the most famous of the five rivers of Hades, the mythical Greek underworld. The River Styx served as a forbidding barrier between the living and the dead, so souls depended on the ferryman Charon for transportation to the afterlife.

See also: lethargy

“A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless.” —King James I (about smoking)

[Our Wednesday Wildcards are fascinating and important words that are not necessarily derived from classical roots.]