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halcyon

HAL-see-uhn/ˈhælsi.ən/

Noun pluralhalcyons

5 meanings of halcyon

Practice

  1. 1
    peacefuladjective
    Calm, peaceful and untroubled; often used of a happy, golden time remembered fondly, as in halcyon days.

    Early employees look back fondly on the company's halcyon days, before the investors and deadlines arrived.

    The lake lay still beneath a halcyon sky, its surface barely stirred by the evening breeze.

    UsageUsually used before a noun, most often in the set phrase halcyon days.

    Similarpeaceful, calm, serene, tranquil, quiet

    Oppositeturbulent, stormy, troubled, tumultuous

    Note

    The calm of the mythical kingfisher settles here on eras and places, most familiarly in halcyon days, and it often looks back. Alexander Hamilton waves off men hoping for "the halcyon scenes of the poetic or fabulous age." Margery Allingham's halcyon days are the last quarter of the nineteenth century.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The figurative peaceful sense derives from the mythical bird and its calm nesting days. en.wikipedia.org
    • Alexander Hamilton dismisses hopes for the quoted idyllic scenes in Federalist No. 30. avalon.law.yale.edu
    • Allingham's narrator describes the last quarter of the nineteenth century as halcyon days in The China Governess. fadedpage.com
  2. 2
    bird in mythnounliterarycountable
    A kingfisher whose nesting by the sea, according to classical myth, made the gods hold back the wind and waves.

    In the myth, the gods held back every storm for as long as the halcyon sat on her nest by the shore.

    The mosaic shows two halcyons above a sea so smooth it looks like glass.

    Similarkingfisher

    Note

    In Ovid, grieving Alcyone and her drowned husband Ceyx become kingfishers, and her father Aeolus, god of the winds, calms the sea around midwinter while she nests: the first halcyon days. Poets kept the bird, as in Dryden's "halcyons brooding on a winter sea." From that calm comes the "calm" meaning, and Ambrose Bierce plays on both, setting a real halcyon chattering over creeks during halcyon days.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

    • Ovid recounts the transformation of grieving Alcyone and her drowned husband Ceyx into halcyon birds. poetryintranslation.com
    • Alcyone's father Aeolus controls the winds and calms the sea for her offspring. theoi.com
    • The calm nesting period occurs in winter. classics.mit.edu
    • The myth explains the original halcyon days and the later peaceful sense. en.wikipedia.org
    • Dryden wrote the quoted words in The Indian Emperor; Cortez speaks them to Cydaria. gutenberg.org
    • The calm sense is connected to the mythical calm period. en.wikipedia.org
    • Bierce plays on the bird and peaceful-period senses together in On a Mountain. gutenberg.org

Less common meanings

  1. 3
    noun
    A tropical kingfisher belonging to the genus Halcyon, such as the woodland kingfisher (Halcyon senegalensis) of Africa.
  2. 4
    adjectiveliterary
    Belonging or relating to the kingfisher, the bird also called the halcyon.
  3. 5
    nounliterary
    The body of a dead kingfisher, said in Tudor times to work as a weather vane when hung from a beam.
    Renege, affirm, and turn their halcyon beaks / With every gale and vary of their master
    c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”

Practice

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Origin

Inherited from Middle English alceoun, from Latin halcyōn or alcyōn ("kingfisher"), from Ancient Greek ἀλκυών (alkuṓn). The h was added in Greek and Latin through a folk link with háls ("sea") and kúō ("to conceive"), as if the bird were one that breeds on the sea.

Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

  • English halcyon was inherited from Middle English alceoun, ultimately through Latin halcyōn or alcyōn, meaning kingfisher, from Ancient Greek ἀλκυών (alkuṓn). en.wiktionary.org
  • The Greek form with initial h arose through folk etymology associating the word with words for sea and conceiving. en.wiktionary.org
  • The Latin variant with h likewise reflects association with Greek háls, meaning sea. fr.wiktionary.org
  • Greek háls means sea. en.wikipedia.org
  • Greek kúō means to conceive. en.wiktionary.org
  • The folk interpretation connects the bird's name with the belief that it breeds on the sea. en.wikipedia.org