Gordian, a. and n.
(ˈgɔːdɪən)
Also 6 gordion, -dyon.
[f. L. Gordi-us or Gordi-um (see sense 1) + -an. The phrase nodus Gordius (used fig.) is a conjectural reading in Ammianus Marcellinus xiv. xi. i.]
A. adj.
1. Gordian knot. a. An intricate knot tied by Gordius, king of Gordium in Phrygia. The oracle declared that whoever should loosen it should rule Asia, and Alexander the Great overcame the difficulty by cutting through the knot with his sword.
| 1611 Shakes. Cymb. ii. ii. 34 As slippery as the Gordian⁓knot was hard. 1891 A. T. Pierson Credulity of Incred. 14 Alexander cut the Gordian Knot, which he had not the skill, patience, or strength to untie. |
† b. A representation of an intricate knot.
| 1641 Evelyn Diary 1 Sept., The gallery is prettily painted with several huntings, and at one end a gordian knot. |
c. fig. or allusively: (a) A matter of extreme difficulty. to cut a Gordian knot: to get rid of a difficulty by force or by evading the supposed conditions of solution. (b) An indissoluble bond. † Also Gordian-twined knot.
| (a) 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 396 Hee had found out a sworde to cutt in sunder this Gordian knot. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, i. i. 46 Turne him to any Cause of Pollicy, The Gordian Knot of it he will vnloose. 1682 Sir T. Browne Chr. Mor. ii. §13 Death will find some ways to unty or cut the most Gordian Knots of Life. 1735–8 Bolingbroke On Parties 84 His Sword would have cut the gordian Knot of hereditary Right. 1791 Bentham Panopt. Pref., The Gordian knot of the Poor Laws not cut but untied. 1887 Rider Haggard Jess xxxii, By no other means could the Gordian Knot be cut. |
| (b) 1590 Greene Orl. Fur. (1599) 23 This Gordion knot together counites A Medor partener in her peerelesse loue. c 1630 P. Fletcher Pisc. Eclogs, etc. (1633) 61 Strange power of home, with how strong-twisted arms, And Gordian⁓twined knot, dost thou enchain me! 1788 H. Walpole Remin. ii. 19 Perhaps too much difficulty of untying the Gordian knot of matrimony..would be no kindness to the ladies. 1824 Byron Juan xvi. lxxiv, The Gordian or the Geordi-an knot, whose strings Have tied together commons, lords, and kings. |
2. Resembling the Gordian knot; consisting of twisted convolutions, intricate, involved.
| 1606 Proc. agst. Garnet S s 3, The binding knot of the late Gordian Conspiracie. 1643 Milton Divorce ii. xx, Hereby also dissolving tedious and Gordian difficulties, which have hitherto molested the Church of God. 1667 ― P.L. iv. 348 Close the serpent sly, Insinuating, wove with Gordian twine His braided train. 1802–12 Bentham Rationale Judic. Evid. (1827) III. 193 Some of them [are] such as seem scarce capable of receiving solution but in the Gordian style. 1819 Keats Lamia 47 She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue. 1820 Shelley Ode Liberty xv, Lift the victory-flashing sword, And cut the snaky knots of this foul gordian word. 1871 R. Ellis tr. Catullus lxiv. 258 Some girt round them in orbs, snakes gordian, intertwining. |
† B. n.
1. = Gordian knot.
| 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. iv. 152 It is like the Gordian: whiche it is better to breake in sonder, than to labor so much in vndoing it. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Bloody Bro. i. i, My sword, With which the Gordian of your Sophistry Being cut, shall shew th' Imposture. 1643 Prynne Sov. Power Parl. ii. 36 These strongest obligations are all cancelled, these Gordians cut in sunder with the sword of warre. 1709 Mrs. Manley Secret Mem. (ed. 2) II. 195 And who⁓ever is the Man that unties the Gordian, as some such is always to be found, his Fortune is made. |
2. An inhabitant of Gordium; one skilled in tying intricate knots.
| 1606 Earl of Northampton in True & Perf. Relat. I i 1 a, The hardest knots that the Gordians of our age can deuise to tye. |