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Word of the Day:
IRENIC (adj.)
Definition(s):
- (adj.) promoting peace; peaceful or conciliatory in purpose
Useful info for word game players:
- Front hooks: E-
- Back hooks: -S
- Anagrams: (none)
- Longer extensions: irenicAL, irenicALLY
- Wraparounds: EirenicAL
- Other Spellings: EIRENIC
- Related Forms: IRENICS, E/IRENICAL, IRENICALLY
Current theme:
Unpack Your Adjectives
Epilogue:
This adjective, similar in meaning to PEACEFUL or PACIFIC, is chiefly used in theological writing:
Erasmus is noteworthy in his persistent effort to take the high road by promoting modest, tolerant, and irenic discourse.
~ Terence J. Martin, Living Words: Studies in Dialogues about Religion (1998)
Though it has also been used in literary and other secular contexts:
If anybody was jealous, if any of the usual bourgeois hangups festered beneath the surface of the long irenic dream that was Drop City, Marco never saw it.
~ T.C. Boyle, Drop City (2004)
Words such as IRENIC and IRENICAL derive from Eirene, the ancient Greek goddess of peace and one of the Horae, or the goddesses of the seasons and rightful order. Her name means “peace” and is often rendered as Irene today, though the old Greek form did lead to alternate spellings with the E- in front, such as EIRENIC and EIRENICAL. On the other end of the word, although IRENIC is an adjective, the form IRENICS is a plural noun referring to a branch of theology dealing with Christian unity.
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