‖ simurgh
(sɪˈmɜːg)
Also simurg, simorg(h.
[Pers. sīmurgh, f. Pahlavi sīn (Av. saēna, Skr. {cced}yena) eagle + murgh bird.]
A monstrous bird of Persian legend, imagined as rational, having the power of speech, and of great age.
| α 1786 tr. Beckford's Vathek 89 Is the Simurgh coming to pluck out my eyes? a 1843 Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. Ser. ii. (1849) 459 In the Bahar Danush the Simurgh is mentioned as a genus, not an individual. This is heresy, the unity of the Simurgh being expressed in all the books of canonical romance. 1886 P. Robinson Teetotum Trees 152 Some Brobdingnagian condor like the Simurg, with feathers that were large enough for oars—or the Roc itself. |
| β 1801 Southey Thalaba viii. xix, In Kaf the Simorg hath his dwelling place The all-knowing Bird of Ages. 1864 Bailey Festus (ed. 7) 305 Simorgh, and rokh, and phœnix, comet-like, Which nested in the sun. a 1871 De Morgan Budget Parad. (1872) 329, I am an ‘old bird’,..a Simorg, an ‘all-knowing Bird of Ages’ in matters of cyclometry. |