phoenix

Meanings

Noun

• A mythological bird, said to be the only one of its kind, which lives for 500 years and then dies by burning to ashes on a pyre of its own making, ignited by the sun. It then arises anew from the ashes.
• Anything that is reborn after apparently being destroyed.
• A mythological Chinese chimerical bird whose physical body symbolizes the six celestial bodies; a fenghuang.
• A Greek silver coin used briefly from 1828 to 1832, divided into 100 lepta.

Verb

• To transfer assets from one company to another to dodge liability

Origin

• From Old English and Old French fenix, from Medieval Latin phenix, from Latin phoenīx, from Ancient Greek φοῖνιξ, from Egyptian bnw. The grey heron was venerated at Heliopolis and associated in Egypt with the cyclical renewal of life because the bird rises in flight at dawn and migrates back every year in the flood season to inhabit the Nile waters.