eureka
English
Etymology
From Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative first singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “to find”). Archimedes supposedly exclaimed this when he figured out how to determine the density of an object. First use appears c. 1603 in a text by Philemon Holland.
Pronunciation
Interjection
eureka!
- An exclamation indicating a sudden discovery.
- 1821, Byron, Don Juan:
- Eureka! I have found it! What I mean / To say is, not that love is idleness, / But that in love such idleness has been / An accessory, as I have cause to guess.
- 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
- "Eureka!" he cried, his teeth shining through his beard. "Gentlemen, you may congratulate me and we may congratulate each other. The problem is solved."
- 1970, Peter Porter, The Sanitized Sonnets, The Last of England:
- A page is turned - eureka, a snatch of tune / is playing itself, the piss-proud syllables / are unveiling a difficult prosody.
Derived terms
Translations
exclamation indicating sudden discovery
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See also
Dutch
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative 1st singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “I find”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˌœy̯ˈreːkaː/, /øːˈreːkaː/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: eu‧re‧ka
Italian
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek εὕρηκᾰ (heúrēka).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɛw.re.ka/
- Rhymes: -ɛwreka
- Hyphenation: èu‧re‧ka
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /euˈɾeka/ [eu̯ˈɾe.ka]
- Rhymes: -eka
- Syllabification: eu‧re‧ka
Further reading
- “eureka”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
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