stygisk

Swedish

Alternative forms

• Stygisk (letter-case, now nonstandard)

Etymology

Likely from Latin stygius, from Ancient Greek Στύγιος (Stúgios, “relating to Styx”), from Στύξ (Stúx, “Styx, chief river of underworld”). First attested in 1723. Compare English Stygian and German stygisch.

Corrosive sense from the belief that the River Styx contained corrosive water.

Adjective

stygisk (comparative stygiskare, superlative stygiskast)

1. (Greek mythology) Stygian (of, by or relating to the river Styx in Greek mythology)
   • 1820 [8 CE], Publius Ovidius Naso, translated by Gudmund Jöran Adlerbeth, edited by Jakob Adlerbeth, Ovidii Metamorphoser, page 414:

     Rop af en Stygisk uf på tusende orter man hoͤrde;
     Tåren på tusende rann af elfenbenet.

     A Stygian owl cried out, heard in a thousand places;
     The tear on a thousand flowed from the ivory.

   • 1822, Erik Johan Stagnelius, Bacchanterna eller Fanatismen, page 8:

     En moͤrk tenarisk dunst, en Stygisk dimma,
     En roͤk är allt hvad som vi vakne tänka.

     A dark tenebrous vapor, a Stygian haze,
     A fume is all that we, awake, do ponder.

   1. miserable, unhappy, hellish

      Antonym: elyseisk (“Elysian”)

      • 1962, Gunnar Eriksson, Elias Fries och den romantiska biologien, page 148:

        Han berättar, att medan hans kamrater vid ankomsten till Lund fann sig försatta på de stygiska fälten, som de uppfattade det platta, av smutsiga bondgårdar fyllda landskapet, så tyckte sig Fries ha hamnat på de elyseiska.

        He relates that, while his comrades, upon arriving in Lund, found themselves placed in the Stygian fields, which they perceived as a flat, muddy landscape filled with filthy farms, Fries fancied himself to have arrived in the Elysian ones.

   2. (figurative) corrosive, poisonous

      Synonyms: frätande, giftig

      • 1950, Karl Ragnar Gierow, Mina utflykter, page 187:

        Ja, när du nyligen göt i retorten den stygiska vätskan, bröt med ett tordönsbrak bunden salpeter sitt band, stank bredde ut sig med ens , den vänliga livsluften kvävdes, halvdöda segnade ned de som hjälpte dig då.

        Ah, when you recently poured the corrosive liquid into the retort, bound saltpetre burst its bonds with a thunderous crash, stench spread at once, the kindly breath of life was stifled, and those who assisted you then sank down half-dead.

Declension

Inflection of stygisk

Indefinite	positive	comparative	superlative1
common singular	stygisk	—	—
neuter singular	stygiskt	—	—
plural	stygiska	—	—
masculine plural2	stygiske	—	—
Definite	positive	comparative	superlative
masculine singular3	stygiske	—	—
all	stygiska	—	—

¹ The indefinite superlative forms are only used in the predicative.
² Dated or archaic.
³ Only used, optionally, to refer to things whose natural gender is masculine.

Related terms

• Styx (“River Styx”)