olympian

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: O=lym=pi=an

CIDE DICTIONARY

olympian, a. [L. Olympius, Olympicus, Gr. 'Oly`mpios, 'Olympiko`s, fr. 'O`lympos: cf. F. olympique. See Olympiad.].

 Of or pertaining to Olympus, a mountain of Thessaly, fabled as the seat of the gods, or to Olympia, a small plain in Elis.  [1913 Webster]

olympian, prop. n. [L. See 1st Olympian, a.].

•  A god who dwells on Olympus.  [PJC]
•  An inhabitant of Olympia.  [PJC]
•  An athlete who competes in the Olympics.  [PJC]

olympian, a. [L. See 1st Olympian, n.].

 Pertaining to, characteristic of, or fitting for one of the gods on Olympus; grand, majestic, or aloof.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

olympian, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 a of or associated with Mount Olympus in NE Greece, traditionally the home of the Greek gods. b celestial, godlike.
2 (of manners etc.) magnificent, condescending, superior.
3 a of or relating to ancient Olympia in S. Greece. b = OLYMPIC.
--n.
1 any of the pantheon of twelve gods regarded as living on Olympus.
2 a person of great attainments or of superhuman calm and detachment.

Etymology

L Olympus or Olympia: see OLYMPIC

DEVIL DICTIONARY

olympian

adj. Relating to a mountain in Thessaly, once inhabited by gods, now a repository of yellowing newspapers, beer bottles and mutilated sardine cans, attesting the presence of the tourist and his appetite.

His name the smirking tourist scrawls
Upon Minerva's temple walls,
Where thundered once Olympian Zeus,
And marks his appetite's abuse.
Averil Joop

THESAURUS

olympian

Elysian, Laodicean, above all that, aerial, airy, aloof, altitudinous, apathetic, ascending, aspiring, backward, bashful, beatific, beatified, benumbed, blah, blank, blase, blessed, candid, celestial, chilled, chilly, cold, colossal, comatose, constrained, cool, desensitized, detached, discreet, disinterested, dispassionate, distant, dominating, dull, elevated, eminent, ethereal, exalted, exclusive, expressionless, extramundane, extraterrestrial, forbidding, frigid, from on high, frosty, glorified, guarded, haughty, heartless, heavenly, hebetudinous, high, high-pitched, high-reaching, high-set, high-up, hopeless, icy, impartial, impassive, impersonal, in a stupor, in glory, inaccessible, indifferent, insouciant, introverted, languid, lethargic, listless, lofty, modest, monumental, mounting, neutral, nonchalant, numb, numbed, offish, otherworldly, outtopping, overlooking, overtopping, paradisaic, paradisal, paradisiac, paradisic, passive, phlegmatic, pluckless, prominent, remote, removed, repressed, reserved, resigned, restrained, reticent, retiring, seclusive, selfless, shrinking, slack, sluggish, soaring, soporific, spiring, spiritless, spunkless, standoff, standoffish, steep, stoic, stupefied, subdued, sublime, superlative, supernal, supine, suppressed, topless, toplofty, topping, torpid, towering, towery, transcendental, transmundane, unaffable, unapproachable, unbiased, uncaring, unconcerned, uncongenial, undemonstrative, unearthly, unexpansive, ungenial, uninfluenced, uninterested, unselfish, unswayed, unworldly, uplifted, upreared, withdrawn