▪ I. Icarian, a.1
(aɪˈkɛərɪən)
Also 9 Icarean.
[f. L. {Imac}carius = Gr. Ἰκάριος, f. {Imac}carus, Ἴκαρος the son of Daedalus, in Greek Mythology.]
Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Icarus, fabled, in escaping from Crete, to have flown so high that the sun melted the wax with which his artificial wings were fastened on, so that he fell into the ægean sea: hence, applied to ambitious or presumptuous acts which end in failure or ruin.
| 1595 Polimanteia (1881) 58, I feel my Icarian wings to melt with the heate of so bright a sunne. 1623 Cockeram, Icharian soaring, Pride. 1639 G. Daniel Poems Wks. 1878 II. 121 Mee better suits to Creepe Then with Icarian winge Contrive a scorned Ruine. a 1822 Shelley Mann. Anc. in Ess. & Lett. (Camelot) 43 Expectations are often exalted on Icarean wings, and fall. 1844 Disraeli Coningsby vii. i, Your Icarian flight melts into a very grovelling existence. 1936 E. Sitwell Sel. Poems 249 Eagle-winged Icarian flights. 1972 Daily Tel. (Colour Suppl.) 1 Dec. 16/1 In the view of some social philosophers and historians, space flight is an Icarian venture at its best—and an extravagance at its worst. |
▪ II. Icarian, a.2 and n.
(aɪˈkɛərɪən)
[f. Icari-a (see def.) + -an.]
a. adj. Pertaining to or characteristic of Icaria, an ideal republic described in a work (Voyage en Icarie, 1840) by the French communist Etienne Cabet (1788–1856), afterwards taken as the name of several communistic settlements, established by Cabet at Nauvoo and elsewhere in U.S. b. n. A follower or adherent of Cabet; a member of an Icarian community such as that at Nauvoo.
| 1865 Athenæum No. 1949. 309/1 A Phalansterian, perhaps an Icarian. 1875 Nordhoff Communistic Soc. U.S. 387 The Icarians reject Christianity. Ibid. 393 The Icarian system is as nearly as possible a pure democracy. |
Hence Iˈcarianism, the communism of Cabet.
| 1883 R. T. Ely Fr. & Germ. Socialism iii. 50 The apostles of Icarianism should..convert the world by teaching, preaching..and by setting good examples. |