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word of the day

The word for today is…

pantheon (noun):
1a : the gods of a people especially
b : a temple dedicated to all the gods
2 : a group of illustrious or notable persons or things I
3 : a building serving as the burial place of or containing memorials to the famous dead of a nation

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : Some of the earliest uses of this word in the English language refer to that most famous Pantheon, the circular domed temple built in Rome more than 19 centuries ago (and still standing). We can easily identify the origins of the temple’s name, which the Romans borrowed from the Greek word for a temple honoring all their gods. That Greek word, pantheion, combines pan- (“all”) and theos (“god”). Later on, in English, “all the gods” was used to mean just that—a pantheon could be a collective of gods (as “the Egyptian pantheon”). We stop short of worshiping outstanding men and women as actual gods, of course, but nevertheless, in the 19th century we also began using pantheon as a word for any eminent company of the highly venerated.

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