Word of The Day for Monday, May 30, 2011

Junoesque

Ju•no•esque (joo-noh-ESK)  adj

Definition:
having the stately bearing and imposing beauty of the goddess Juno
Origin:
1888; from Juno + -esque

Related:
Synonyms: statuesque, shapely, regal

Sentence Examples:
• When I was twenty-one, I swore,
If I should ever wed,
The maiden that I should adore
Should have a classic head;
Should have a form quite Junoesque;
A manner full of grace;
A wealth of hirsute picturesque
Above a piquant face.
- Cobwebs from a Library Corner, John Kendrick Bangs

• For almost an hour then he lay considering solemnly whether a red-headed girl could possibly be pretty. By two o'clock he had finally visualized quite a striking, Juno-esque type of beauty with a figure about the regal height of Cornelia's, and blue eyes perhaps just a trifle hazier and more mischievous. - Molly Make-Believe, Eleanor Hallowell Abbott

• That there should have been in the uncommon-tall young woman of buxom stateliness and prepossessing features, attired (to the mere masculine eye) in quite elegant black raiment--a thing called, I think, a picture hat, broad-brimmed with a sweeping ostrich feather, tickled my especial fancy, but was afterwards reviled by my wife as being entirely unsuited to fresh widowhood--what there should have been in this remarkable Junoesque young person who followed on the heels of Franklin to strike terror into Jaffery's soul, I could not, for the life of me, imagine. - Jaffery, William J. Locke

Wikipedia:

Juno was an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister (but also the wife) of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera. As the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire she was called Regina ("queen") and, together with Jupiter and Minerva, was worshipped as a triad on the Capitol (Juno Capitolina) in Rome.

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

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