isis
/ˈaɪ.sɪs/ noun, proper noun
Forms isises the Isis Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
- noun (zoology) Any coral of the genus Isis, or family Isididae, composed of joints of white, stony coral, alternating with flexible, horny joints.
- proper noun (Egyptian mythology) An ancient Egyptian goddess, the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, worshiped as the ideal mother and wife and as the matron of nature and magic; also worshiped by (some) Greeks during the Hellenistic period and featured in Greek mythology, and by Romans involved in what was categorized as the Cult of Isis.
- proper noun (astronomy) 42 Isis, a main belt asteroid.
- proper noun (uncommon) A female given name from Egyptian or Ancient Greek.
- proper noun (UK, especially Oxfordshire, otherwise dated) The River Thames between its source and its confluence with the River Thame at Dorchester on Thames.
- proper noun A Salafist group mainly active in Iraq and Syria, where it has proclaimed itself as a (unrecognized) state and later caliphate.
Synonyms
Etymology
From the genus name.
Learned borrowing from Latin Īsis from Ancient Greek Ἶσις (Îsis), from Egyptian st-t:H8-B1 (ꜣst).
Back-formation of the Latin Tamesis (“Thames”), from the assumption that the word was derived from a compound of Thame (“A tributary of the Thames”) and Isis. The prison was named after the river.
(Salafist group): An acronym of one English translation of one of the group's Arabic-language names, الدَّوْلَة الْإِسْلَامِيَّة فِي الْعِرَاق وَٱلشَّام (ad-dawla l-ʔislāmiyya fī l-ʕirāq wa-š-šām, literally “the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria”). Compare ISIL, which translates الشَّام (aš-šām) as “the Levant” rather than “Syria”.
Webster’s 1913
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “isis”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details