cimmerian

comparative more cimmerian · superlative most cimmerian

1. formalliterallyliterarypoeticPerpetually dark or gloomy.

   As ragged as thy locks, In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

   1740, George Frideric Handel, Charles Jennens, L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato

   3 more examples

   There, under ebon shades... in dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell.

   1631, Milton, L'Allegro

   ...the darkness of antiquated barbarism, in which he buries himself like a mole, to throw up the barren hillocks of his Cimmerian labours.

   1820, Thomas Love Peacock, The Four Ages of Poetry

   1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter VI, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600641.txt The glimpse of blue vault far above only heightened the cimmerian gloom of the canyon, and the frowning rocks, which rose abruptly gave one the impression that they were on the point of crashing into the ravine.

2. figurativelyformalMentally dark; ignorant; benighted.

   The source of man’s unhappiness is his ignorance of Nature.... To remove this Cimmerian darkness... requires the clue of Ariadne.

   1770, Baron D'Holbach, The System of Nature

plural Cimmerians

1. Greekhuman sciencesAny of the mythical people supposed to inhabit a land of perpetual darkness.

   The city, there, of the Cimmerians stands With clouds and darkness veil’d, on whom the sun Deigns not to look with his beam-darting eye,

   1791, Homer, translated by William Cowper, The Odyssey of Homer

   1 more example

   On their mysterious shores were the improbable homes of impossible peoples. The Great Sea, the Broad Sea, the Boundless Sea; the Ethiopians, "dwelling far away, the most distant of men," and the Cimmerians, "covered with darkness and cloud," where "baleful night is spread over timid mortals."

   1900, Jack London, The Shrinkage of the Planet

2. One of the Cimmerii, ancient equestrian nomads of Indo-European origin.

   1910, Herodotus (484 B.C.E.–425 B.C.E.), History of Herodotus, translated by George Rawlinson In his reign the Cimmerians, driven from their homes by the nomads of Scythia, entered Asia and captured Sardis

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   Believe me, queen, your swarth Cimmerian Doth make your honour of his body's hue, Spotted, detested, and abominable.

   c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

   The Phrygian power was broken in the 9th or 8th century B.C. by the Cimmerians, who entered Asia Minor through Armenia

   1902, Encyclopedia Britannica

3. historicalThe prophetic priestess presiding over the Apollonian Oracle at Cimmerium in Italy.

   1867 to 1885, Lactantius (240–320 C.E.), Ante-Nicene Fathers, translated by William Fletcher Varro relates that there were ten Sibyls,—the first of the Persians, the second the Libyan, the third the Delphian, the fourth the Cimmerian...

comparative more Cimmerian · superlative most Cimmerian

1. Pertaining to the ancient Cimmerians.
2. Characteristic of Cimmeria, especially in having particularly dense darkness etc.

   Tarzan slept until midnight, then he arose and crept into the Cimmerian blackness of the forest.

   1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 140

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   there it sleepeth, here it slumbreth: more or lesse they are ever darknesses, yea Cimmerian darknesses.

   1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 12, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC

   But the recent explosions had tapped just a fraction of Tambora’s compressed magma—the real paroxysm came five days later. Crawfurd, two islands away, was forced to conduct his daily affairs by candlelight as a gigantic ash cloud plunged the whole region into Cimmerian gloom.

   2023, Clive Oppenheimer, Mountains of Fire: The Menace, Meaning, and Magic of Volcanoes, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 101

1. The language of the Cimmerians, possibly belonging to the Iranian branch.

1. not comparableRelated to the prehistoric continent of Cimmeria.