phoenix

phoenix
noun

(in classical mythology) a unique bird that lived for five or six centuries in the Arabian desert, after this time burning itself on a funeral pyre and rising from the ashes with renewed youth to live through another cycle
（古典神话）长生鸟，不死鸟；凤凰，鸾（在阿拉伯沙漠中生存500到600年，然后在柴堆上自焚并从灰烬中重生，开始另一个生命轮回）
■a person or thing regarded as uniquely remarkable in some respect
完人，出类拔萃的人；完美之物，殊品

常用词组
rise like a phoenix from the ashes

语源

from Old French fenix, via Latin from Greek phoinix 'Phoenician, reddish purple, or phoenix'. The relationship between the Greek senses is obscure: it could not be ‘the Phoenician bird’ because the legend centres on the temple at Heliopolis in Egypt, where the phoenix is said to have burnt itself on the altar. Perhaps the basic sense is 'purple', symbolic of fire and possibly the primary sense of Phoenicia as the purple land (or land of the sunrise)

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