Stygian

Word of the Day for Tuesday March 22, 2005

stygian (also Stygian) \STIJ-ee-uhn\, adjective:
1. Of or pertaining to the river Styx, the principal river of the underworld in Greek mythology; hence, hellish; infernal.
2. Dark and dismal.

Although accounts vary, that vision, both sublime and ominous, helped give birth to "Metropolis," a cinematic landmark set in a teeming, towering city of the future, an automated, urban sprawl where the wealthy live up in the heavens and the laborers toil in the steaming, Stygian depths.
--James Verniere, "Aye, robot," Boston Herald, August 23, 2002

This month NASA has selected two proposals for a mission to that tiny frozen world 3.5 billion miles away. There, the Sun is just a small stab of light in the Stygian blackness.
--Ian Brown, "The race is on to reveal Pluto's secrets," Independent, June 22, 2001

Light is funnelled into this stygian domain through the central oculus and a pair of saucer domes.
--Catherine Slessor, "Oxford ordonnance," The Architectural Review, October 1, 1994

The gleaming steel catches the sunlight, casting a play of sparkling reflections and shadows into the Stygian, subterranean depths.
--Catherine Slessor, "Bermondsey Beacon," The Architectural Review, June 1, 2000


Stygian is from Latin Stygius, from Greek Stygios, from Styx, Styg-, "Styx."
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Shaft


Building


Subway or river of styx in the tracks