mytho-
(ˈmaɪθəʊ, ˈmɪθəʊ, mɪˈθɒ)
combining f. Gr. µῦθος myth, as in mythology, etc. A few compounds of occasional occurrence are placed here: ˈmythoclast [Gr. -κλαστης breaker], one who destroys or casts discredit upon myths; hence mythoˈclastic a. mythoˈgenesis, the production of myths. myˈthogony [Gr. -γονία creation], the study of the origin of myths; hence mythoˈgonic a. ˌmythoheˈroic a., concerned with mythical heroes. ˌmytho-hiˈstoric a., involving a mixture of myth and history. ˈmythomane = mythomaniac; also attrib. mythoˈmania, the condition or tendencies of a mythomaniac. mythoˈmaniac, (a) one who is ‘mad on’ myths; (b) one who has an abnormal or pathological tendency to lie or exaggerate; also as adj. myˈthometer, a standard by which myths judged. myˈthonomy (see quots.); mythoˈpastoral a., combining mythic and pastoral elements. mythoˈpœia = mythopœism † ˈmythoplasm, the fabrication of myths. ˌmytho-theˈology, theology based on myth.
| 1890 Sat. Rev. 4 Oct. 392 To give the *mythoclast his due. |
| 1881 Spectator 15 Oct. 1309/2 In this *mythoklastic age. |
| 1887 Mind XII. 623 The cause of the extraordinary development in man of ‘*mythogenesis’. |
| 1889 N. & Q. Ser. vii. VII. Advt. p. iv, The *mythogonic hypothesis presented by Professor Max Müller and other philologists. |
| Ibid., The author draws a sharp distinction between *mythogony and mythology. |
| 1841 Fraser's Mag. XXIV. 129 In the *mytho⁓heroic poems, the great Heraclide family enjoyed all that fame which mythic poetry can give. 1878 T. Sinclair Mount vii. 167 æschylus..is almost wholly epical or mytho⁓heroic. |
| 1838 T. Keightley Mythol. (ed. 2) 304 Grecian history—of which the..*mytho-historic portion commences with the Dorian migration. |
| 1954 Encounter Dec. 77/2 [Socialism is to be] treated as the way to that abolition of ‘injustice’ whose necessary existence in any human society these *mythomanes find intolerable. 1959 Ibid. June 79/1 The mythomanes seized the new means of communication. 1962 Punch 26 Sept. 464/3 A mythomane tart with a line in imaginary family grandeur. 1975 Times 2 May 11/8 Paper Tiger.. is a modest..entertainment, with David Niven as a pathological mythomane who..finds himself obliged to live up to his fantasies. |
| 1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl., *Mythomania. 1955 Antiquity XXIX. 197 Deception for the mere fun of deceiving—a sort of mythomania. 1958 New Statesman 6 Sept. 311/1 As for the formal principle on which the New Critics plumed themselves, it cannot be said that they ever applied it with any consistency or finesse; and lately it has been giving way to mythomania and symbol-hunting. 1973 Times Lit. Suppl. 30 Nov. 1476/1 It proves to have no resemblance to the sculpture, and the assertion is seen as a manifestation of mythomania. |
| 1857 Fraser's Mag. LVI. 88 note, When it is the fashion to insist that almost every one and everything bygone is a myth..we would humbly remind the *mythomaniacs that [etc.]. 1922 W. S. Maugham Writer's Notebk. (1949) 186 She is not only a liar, she is a mythomaniac who will invent malicious stories that have no foundation in fact. 1961 Times 15 June 17/3 Mary ends up sadder, if less mythomaniac, than she began. 1973 C. McCarry Miernik Dossier (1974) 90, I regarded Miernik as a mythomaniac... I did not believe in the existence of the sister. |
| 1890 Sat. Rev. 4 Oct. 392 Even Elia's dissertation on the origin of the crackling is gravely brought under the..*mythometer of this degree of positive critic. |
| 1882 Amer. Naturalist Oct. 829 Mythography... Mythology... *Mythonomy. 1890 Cent. Dict., Mythonomy, the deductive and predictive stage of mythology. 1939 C. S. Lewis Lett. (1966) 163 We now need a new word for ‘the science of the nature of myths’... Would ‘mythonomy’ do? |
| 1838 Blackw. Mag. XXXIV. 716 The *mythopastoral class of Sanscrit plays. |
| 1731 Bailey vol. II, *Mythoplasm, a fabulous narration of history. |
| 1959 H. Bloom Shelley's Mythmaking i. 8, I do not claim that all of Shelley's major and mature poems are *mythopoeic, especially in the precise and narrow sense of mythopoeia that I insist upon here. 1970 Listener 30 July 154/2 Science is not immune to mythopoeia. |
| 1927 J. S. Huxley Relig. without Revelation vi. 191 They possess a vague and elastic *mytho-theology. 1932 R. Knox Broadcast Minds iv. 72 They had ancestors..to whom that mytho-theology was real. |