mythical

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin mȳthicus (“legendary”) with the English suffix -al;^[2][3][4] the OED notes that the Latin adjective is recorded from Varro by Augustine.^[2] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek μυθικός (muthikós), from μῦθος (mûthos, “speech, word, story, myth”) with the suffix -ικός (-ikós).^[2][3][5] Etymonline calls the Greek noun a word of unknown origin, which Beekes thinks quite possibly Pre-Greek.^[5] The Shorter Oxford and Etymonline instead derive the adjective from mythic and -al,^[6][5] but in the OED it is recorded before mythic, which it compares with Middle French mythique (1570).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the nature of a myth or based on myths: 1610, in John Healey's translation of Augustine's City of God.^[2][3] Etymonline dates the word to the 1670s,^[5] Dictionary.com to 1670–80,^[4] and the Shorter Oxford to the late 17th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From 1625, in Samuel Purchas, it was used of persons and things known only from myths rather than from historical fact;^[2] from 1870, in Disraeli's Lothair, more loosely of anything without foundation in fact, fictitious or imaginary.^[2] Coleridge (1818) used it of writers and artists who drew on myths, a use now rare;^[2] from 1871 theologians spoke of a mythical theory that read accounts of miracles as myths rather than history.^[2] In the 20th century it came to describe a person or thing with an idealized or exaggerated reputation built on rumour (1927).^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1610 – based on or relating to myths.^[2][3]
• 1625 – known only through myths; existing only in myth.^[2]
• 1670s – Etymonline's date for the word.^[5]
• 1818 – of writers and artists, drawing on myths.^[2]
• 1870 – fictitious, imaginary.^[2]
• 1871 – theology, interpreting miracle accounts as myth.^[2]
• 1927 – having an exaggerated, idealized reputation.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, occurring in or typical of myths or folk tales: a mythical sea serpent.^[8][3][7][2]
2. Imaginary or fictitious; existing only in people's minds: The firm's mythical overseas investor never appeared.^[8][7][2]
3. Idealized or exaggerated, especially of the past or of a reputation built on rumour.^[7][2]
4. (chiefly theology) Relating to a theory that reads accounts of miracles as myths rather than history.^[2]

Word family

• mythically
• mythicalness
• nonmythical
• premythical
• pseudomythical
• semimythical
• unmythical

Related words

• myth
• mythic
• mythology

References

1. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins