pandora
/ˌpænˈdɔɹə/ noun, proper noun
Forms pandoras
- noun Any fish of the genus Pagellus.
- proper noun (Greek mythology) The first woman on earth, who had been given a box by the gods and instructed not to open it, but who disobeyed the instructions out of curiosity, releasing all manner of evils into the world.
- proper noun (astronomy) A moon of the planet Saturn.
- proper noun (astronomy) 55 Pandora, a main belt asteroid.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek Πανδώρᾱ (Pandṓrā, “all gifts”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A beautiful woman (all-gifted), whom Jupiter caused Vulcan to make out of clay in order to punish the human race, because Prometheus had stolen the fire from heaven. Jupiter gave Pandora a box containing all human ills, which, when the box was opened, escaped and spread over the earth. Hope alone remained in the box. Another version makes the box contain all the blessings of the gods, which were lost to men when Pandora opened it.
- noun A genus of marine bivalves, in which one valve is flat, the other convex.
Etymology [L., fr. Gr. Pandw`ra; pa^s, pa^n, all + dw^ron a gift.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pandora”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details