eureka
English
Etymology
From Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative first person singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “to find”). Archimedes supposedly exclaimed this when he figured out how to determine the density of an object. First use appears c. 1603 in a text by Philemon Holland.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /jəˈɹiː.kə/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- (US) IPA(key): /jʊˈɹiː.kə/
- Rhymes: -iːkə
Interjection
eureka!
- An exclamation indicating a sudden discovery.
- 1821, Byron, Don Juan:
- Eureka! I have found it! What I mean / To say is, not that love is idleness, / But that in love such idleness has been / An accessory, as I have cause to guess.
- 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
- "Eureka!" he cried, his teeth shining through his beard. "Gentlemen, you may congratulate me and we may congratulate each other. The problem is solved."
- 1970, Peter Porter, The Sanitized Sonnets, The Last of England:
- A page is turned - eureka, a snatch of tune / is playing itself, the piss-proud syllables / are unveiling a difficult prosody.
Derived terms
Translations
exclamation indicating sudden discovery
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Noun
eureka (uncountable)
- Synonym of constantan (“copper-nickel alloy”).
See also
Dutch
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative 1st singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “I find”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˌœy̯ˈreːkaː/, /øːˈreːkaː/
Audio: (file) - Hyphenation: eu‧re‧ka
Interjection
eureka
Indonesian
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative 1st singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “I find”).
Interjection
eureka
Further reading
- “eureka” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.
Italian
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek εὕρηκᾰ (heúrēkă).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɛw.re.ka/
- Rhymes: -ɛwreka
- Hyphenation: èu‧re‧ka
Interjection
eureka
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /euˈɾeka/ [eu̯ˈɾe.ka]
- Rhymes: -eka
- Syllabification: eu‧re‧ka
Interjection
eureka
Further reading
- “eureka”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024