Apollo

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin Apollō (“the god Apollo; a statue of the god”),^[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek Ἀπόλλων (Apóllōn),^{[2][5][3][4][6]} a name of unknown origin.^[2][5] In Old English it could also take the Latin case endings, and the genitive Apollinis served as a nominative.^[2] The Greek name has the variants Ἀπέλλων (Apéllōn) in Doric, Ἀπείλων (Apeílōn) in Cypriot and Ἄπλουν (Áploun) in Thessalian.^[7] Beekes finds no Indo-European etymology, despite repeated attempts, and considers the name probably Pre-Greek, with Hittite Appaliunaš, named in a treaty with Alaksandus of Wilusa, as a possible form of the same name.^[7][5] Beekes also rejects Burkert's derivation from Ancient Greek ἀπέλλαι (apéllai).^[7] The OED likewise sees a possible earlier form in that Hittite name, of a Trojan god.^[2] Partridge, following Boisacq, had suggested a root Proto-Indo-European *apel- (“to excite, promote, procreate”), making the god "the Exciter" or "Generator".^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Greek and Roman god: in Old English, in Ælfric's homily De Falsis Diis.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The god was later identified with Helios, the sun god.^[5] Latin could already use it for a statue of the god,^[2] and English did so from 1587, above all in the Apollo Belvedere, the classical marble in the Vatican.^[2] From 1837 a beautiful young man could be called an Apollo.^[2][6] Naturalists gave the name to a butterfly: the English use (1808) follows Linnaeus's Papilio Apollo of 1758, now Parnassius apollo.^[2][4] The word also became the name of the American space programme, recorded from 1960,^[2] which ran from 1961 to 1972.^[5]

Timeline

• Old English – the god, in Ælfric.^[2]
• 1587 – a representation of the god in art, in A. Golding's translation of Solinus.^[2]
• 1808 – the butterfly Parnassius apollo, in E. Donovan.^[2]
• 1837 – a beautiful or handsome young man, in the Long-Island Star.^[2]
• 1960 – the American space programme.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. In Greek and Roman mythology, the god of the sun, prophecy, music and poetry, son of Zeus and Leto and twin brother of Artemis.^[9][4][2]
2. A strikingly handsome young man.^[9][4][2]
3. A statue or other image of the god, especially the Apollo Belvedere.^[2]
4. A European alpine butterfly, Parnassius apollo, with pale wings marked with red and black.^[9][4][2]
5. The American space programme that aimed to land astronauts on the moon, or one of its manned spacecraft.^[9][2]
6. One of a class of asteroids, named after a member of the class.^[4]

Related words

• Apollonian

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b c Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Partridge, Eric (1966), Origins: A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 4th ed., London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
9. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins