titan n.

early 15c., from Latin titan, from Greek titan, "a member of a mythological race of giants" (originally six sons and six daughters of Gaia and Uranus) who were overthrown by Zeus and the other gods. The war was a popular theme for Greek artists and writers. The name is perhaps from titō "sun, day," which probably is a loan-word from a language of Asia Minor. The sense of "person or thing of enormous size or ability" is by 1828.

Titan was given as a name to planet Saturn's largest satellite in 1831 (Greek Kronos, equivalent of Roman Saturn, was leader of the titans). It was discovered 1655 by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who named it Saturni Luna "moon of Saturn," but others soon were found and thereafter they generally were known by number only. But as new ones were being found orbiting between the known moons, the numbering kept changing. William Herschel proposed giving the multiplying moons of Saturn and Jupiter suitable proper names out of mythology, a proposal readily accepted by the other astronomers. Related: Titaness; titanian.

词汇	titan
词源	titan n. early 15c., from Latin titan, from Greek titan, "a member of a mythological race of giants" (originally six sons and six daughters of Gaia and Uranus) who were overthrown by Zeus and the other gods. The war was a popular theme for Greek artists and writers. The name is perhaps from titō "sun, day," which probably is a loan-word from a language of Asia Minor. The sense of "person or thing of enormous size or ability" is by 1828. Titan was given as a name to planet Saturn's largest satellite in 1831 (Greek Kronos, equivalent of Roman Saturn, was leader of the titans). It was discovered 1655 by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who named it Saturni Luna "moon of Saturn," but others soon were found and thereafter they generally were known by number only. But as new ones were being found orbiting between the known moons, the numbering kept changing. William Herschel proposed giving the multiplying moons of Saturn and Jupiter suitable proper names out of mythology, a proposal readily accepted by the other astronomers. Related: Titaness; titanian. Entries linking to titan Io in Greek mythology, daughter of the river god Inachus, she was pursued by Zeus, who changed her to a heifer in a bid to escape the notice of Juno, but she was tormented by a gadfly sent by Juno. The Jovian moon was discovered in 1610; the mythological names for all of them (objects of Jupiter's seductions in the myths) were proposed shortly thereafter but not widely used before mid-19c. (Compare Titan). These bodies [the Jovian moons] have been called in the order of their distance from Jupiter, Hebe, Ganymede, Themis, and, Metis — these names are, however, little used at present, and they are distinguished by the order of their distance from Jupiter, the first being the nearest. [Dionysius Lardner and M. Argo, "Popular Lectures on Astronomy," New York, 1845] titanic adj. "gigantic, colossal," 1709, from titan + -ic. The British passenger liner R.M.S. Titanic sank April 15, 1912, and the name became symbolic of the destruction of supposedly indestructible. titanium n. metallic element, 1796, Modern Latin, named in 1795 by German chemist and mineralogist Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1743-1817) from Latin Titan (see titan) as "sons of the earth." He previously had named uranium. A pure specimen was not isolated until 1887. updated on January 23, 2022
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titan n.

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