Cynthia
Pronunciation
  • enPR: sĭnʹthē-ə, IPA: /ˈsɪnθiə/
Proper noun
  1. Artemis (Greek goddess).
  2. (literary) The Moon.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Book 3, Canto 1:
      As when faire Cynthia, in darkesome night, / Is in a noyous cloud enveloped [...].
    • 1601, Ben Jonson, Hymn to Diana:
      [...] Cynthia's shining orb was made / Heav'n to clear when day did close [...].
  3. A female given name.
    • 1866, Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters, Chapter 10:
      Cynthia seems to me such an out-of-the-way name, only fit for poetry, not for daily use.”
    • 1978, Graham Greene, The Human Factor, ISBN 0671240854, p. 59:
      Cynthia, the domestic-minded, looked as dashing as a young commando. It was a pity that her spelling was so bad, but perhaps there was something Elizabethan about her spelling as well as about her name.
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