halcyon •\HAL-see-un\ • adjective

hear it again hear it again

*1 : calm, peaceful
2 : happy, golden
3 : prosperous, affluent

Example sentence:
Tara claimed to have found the ideal cure for her stress-related ills: a quiet weekend in the halcyon atmosphere of a beautiful country town.

Etymology:
According to Greek mythology, Alkyone, the daughter of the god of the winds, became so distraught when she learned that her husband had been killed in a shipwreck that she threw herself into the sea and was changed into a kingfisher. As a result, ancient Greeks called such birds "alkyon" or "halkyon." The legend also says that such birds built floating nests on the sea, where they so charmed the wind god that he created a period of unusual calm that lasted until the birds' eggs hatched. This legend prompted people to use "halcyon" both as a noun naming a genus of kingfisher and as an adjective meaning either "of or relating to the kingfisher or its nesting period" or "calm."

*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.

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