Myrrhic adjective Of, pertaining to, or obtained from, myrrh.

Myrrhine adjective Murrhine.

Myrtaceous adjective [ Latin myrtaceus .] (Botany) Of, pertaining to, or resembling, a large and important natural order of trees and shrubs ( Myrtaceæ ), of which the myrtle is the type. It includes the genera Eucalyptus , Pimenta , Lechythis , and about seventy more.

Myrtiform adjective [ Latin myrtus myrtle + -form : confer French myrtiforme .] Resembling myrtle or myrtle berries; having the form of a myrtle leaf.

Myrtle (mẽr"t'l) noun [ French myrtil bilberry, prop., a little myrtle, from myrte myrtle, Latin myrtus , murtus , Greek my`rtos ; confer Persian mūrd .] (Botany) A species of the genus Myrtus , especially Myrtus communis . The common myrtle has a shrubby, upright stem, eight or ten feet high. Its branches form a close, full head, thickly covered with ovate or lanceolate evergreen leaves. It has solitary axillary white or rosy flowers, followed by black several-seeded berries. The ancients considered it sacred to Venus. The flowers, leaves, and berries are used variously in perfumery and as a condiment, and the beautifully mottled wood is used in turning.

» The name is also popularly but wrongly applied in America to two creeping plants, the blue-flowered periwinkle and the yellow- flowered moneywort. In the West Indies several myrtaceous shrubs are called myrtle .

Bog myrtle , the sweet gale. -- Crape myrtle . See under Crape . -- Myrtle warbler (Zoology) , a North American wood warbler ( Dendroica coronata ); -- called also myrtle bird , yellow-rumped warbler , and yellow- crowned warbler . -- Myrtle wax . (Botany) See Bayberry tallow , under Bayberry . -- Sand myrtle , a low, branching evergreen shrub ( Leiophyllum buxifolium ), growing in New Jersey and southward. -- Wax myrtle ( Myrica cerifera ). See Bayberry .

Myself pron. ; plural Ourselves I or me in person; -- used for emphasis, my own self or person; as I myself will do it; I have done it myself ; -- used also instead of me , as the object of the first person of a reflexive verb, without emphasis; as, I will defend myself .

Myselven pron. Myself. [ Obsolete]

Mysis noun [ New Latin , from Greek ... a closing of the lips or eyes.] (Zoology) A genus of small schizopod shrimps found both in fresh and salt water; the opossum shrimps. One species inhabits the Great Lakes of North America, and is largely eaten by the whitefish. The marine species form part of the food of right whales.

Mystacal adjective [ Greek my`stax mustache.] (Zoology) Of or pertaining to the upper lip, or mustache.

Mystagogic, Mystagogical adjective Of or pertaining to interpretation of mysteries or to mystagogue; of the nature of mystagogy.

Mystagogue noun [ Latin mystagogus , Greek ...; ... one initiated in mysteries + ... leading, noun , a leader, from ... to lead: confer French mystagogue . See 1st Mystery .]
1. One who interprets mysteries, especially of a religious kind.

2. One who keeps and shows church relics.

Mystagogy noun The doctrines, principles, or practice of a mystagogue; interpretation of mysteries.

Mysterial adjective Mysterious. [ Obsolete]

Mysteriarch noun [ Latin mysteriarches , Greek ...; ... mystery + ... chief.] One presiding over mysteries. [ Obsolete]

Mysterious adjective [ French mystèrieux . See 1st Mystery .] Of or pertaining to mystery; containing a mystery; difficult or impossible to understand; obscure; not revealed or explained; enigmatical; incomprehensible.

God at last
To Satan, first in sin, his doom applied,
Thought in mysterious terms.

Milton.

Syn. -- Obscure; secret; occult; dark; mystic; cabalistic; enigmatical; unintelligible; incomprehensible.

Mysteriously adverb In a mysterious manner.

Mysteriousness noun
1. The state or quality of being mysterious.

2. Something mysterious; a mystery. [ R.] Jer. Taylor.

Mysterize transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Mysterized ; present participle & verbal noun Mysterizing .] To make mysterious; to make a mystery of.

Mystery (mĭs"tẽr*ȳ) noun ; plural Mysteries (- ĭz). [ Latin mysterium , Greek mysth`rion , from my`sths one initiated in mysteries; confer myei^n to initiate into the mysteries, from my`ein to shut the eyes. Confer Mute , adjective ]
1. A profound secret; something wholly unknown, or something kept cautiously concealed, and therefore exciting curiosity or wonder; something which has not been or can not be explained; hence, specifically, that which is beyond human comprehension.

We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery .

1 Cor. ii. 7.

If God should please to reveal unto us this great mystery of the Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy religion, we should not be able to understand them, unless he would bestow on us some new faculties of the mind.

Swift.

2. A kind of secret religious celebration, to which none were admitted except those who had been initiated by certain preparatory ceremonies; -- usually plural; as, the Eleusinian mysteries .

3. plural The consecrated elements in the eucharist.

4. Anything artfully made difficult; an enigma.

Mystery noun ; plural Mysteries . [ Middle English mistere , Old French mestier , French métier , Latin ministerium . See Ministry .]
1. A trade; a handicraft; hence, any business with which one is usually occupied.

Fie upon him, he will discredit our mystery .

Shak.

And that which is the noblest mystery
Brings to reproach and common infamy.

Spenser.

2. A dramatic representation of a Scriptural subject, often some event in the life of Christ; a dramatic composition of this character; as, the Chester Mysteries , consisting of dramas acted by various craft associations in that city in the early part of the 14th century.

" Mystery plays," so called because acted by craftsmen.

Skeat.

Mystic noun One given to mysticism; one who holds mystical views, interpretations, etc.; especially, in ecclesiastical history, one who professed mysticism. See Mysticism .

Mystic, Mystical adjective [ Latin mysticus , Greek ... belonging to secret rites, from ... one initiated: confer French mystique . See 1st Mystery , Misty .]
1. Remote from or beyond human comprehension; baffling human understanding; unknowable; obscure; mysterious.

Heaven's numerous hierarchy span
The mystic gulf from God to man.

Emerson.

God hath revealed a way mystical and supernatural.

Hooker.

2. Importing or implying mysticism; involving some secret meaning; allegorical; emblematical; as, a mystic dance; mystic Babylon.

Thus, then, did the spirit of unity and meekness inspire every joint and sinew of the mystical body.

Milton.

-- Mys"tic*al*ly , adverb -- Mys"tic*al*ness , noun

Mysticete noun [ Greek my`stax the upper lip, also, the mustache + kh^tos a whale.] (Zoology) Any right whale, or whalebone whale. See Cetacea .

Mysticism noun [ Confer French mysticisme .]
1. Obscurity of doctrine.

2. (Eccl. Hist.) The doctrine of the Mystics, who professed a pure, sublime, and wholly disinterested devotion, and maintained that they had direct intercourse with the divine Spirit, and aquired a knowledge of God and of spiritual things unattainable by the natural intellect, and such as can not be analyzed or explained.

3. (Philos.) The doctrine that the ultimate elements or principles of knowledge or belief are gained by an act or process akin to feeling or faith.

Mystification noun [ Confer French mystification .] The act of mystifying, or the state of being mystied; also, something designed to, or that does, mystify.

The reply of Pope seems very much as though he had been playing off a mystification on his Grace.

De Quincey.

Mystificator noun One who mystifies.

Mystify transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Mystified ; present participle & verbal noun Mystifying .] [ French mystifier , from Greek ... + Latin - ficare (in comp.) to make. See 1st Mystery , and - fy .]
1. To involve in mystery; to make obscure or difficult to understand; as, to mystify a passage of Scripture.

2. To perplex the mind of; to puzzle; to impose upon the credulity of ; as, to mystify an opponent.

He took undue advantage of his credulity and mystified him exceedingly.

Ld. Campbell.

Mytacism noun [ Greek .... Confer Metacism .] Too frequent use of the letter m , or of the sound represented by it.

Myth noun [ Written also mythe .] [ Greek my^qos myth, fable, tale, talk, speech: confer French mythe .]
1. A story of great but unknown age which originally embodied a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; an ancient legend of a god, a hero, the origin of a race, etc.; a wonder story of prehistoric origin; a popular fable which is, or has been, received as historical.

2. A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.

As for Mrs. Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years.

Ld. Lytton.

Myth history , history made of, or mixed with, myths.

Mythe noun See Myth . Grote.

Mythic, Mythical adjective [ Latin mythicus , Greek .... See Myth .] Of or relating to myths; described in a myth; of the nature of a myth; fabulous; imaginary; fanciful. -- Myth"ic*al*ly , adverb

The mythic turf where danced the nymphs.

Mrs. Browning.

Hengist and Horsa, Vortigern and Rowena, Arthur and Mordred, are mythical persons, whose very existence may be questioned.

Macaulay.

Mythographer noun [ Greek myqogra`fos ; my^qos + gra`fein to write.] A composer of fables.

Mythologer noun A mythologist.

Mythologian noun A mythologist.

Mythologic, Mythological adjective [ Latin mythologicus : confer French mytholigique .] Of or pertaining to mythology or to myths; mythical; fabulous. -- Myth`o*log"ic*al*ly , adverb

Mythologist noun [ Confer French mythologiste .] One versed in, or who writes on, mythology or myths.

Mythologize intransitive verb [ Confer French mythologiser .]
1. To relate, classify, and explain, or attempt to explain, myths; to write upon myths.

2. To construct and propagate myths.

Mythologizer noun One who, or that which, mythologizes.

Imagination has always been, and still is, in a narrower sense, the great mythologizer .

Lowell.

Mythologue noun [ See Mythology .] A fabulous narrative; a myth. [ R.]

May we not . . . consider his history of the fall as an excellent mythologue , to account for the origin of human evil?

Geddes.

Mythology noun ; plural Mythologies . [ French mythologie , Latin mythologia , Greek myqologi`a ; my^qos , fable, myth + lo`gos speech, discourse.]
1. The science which treats of myths; a treatise on myths.

2. A body of myths; esp., the collective myths which describe the gods of a heathen people; as, the mythology of the Greeks.

Mythopœic adjective [ Greek myqopoio`s making myths; my^qos myth + poiei^n to make.] Making or producing myths; giving rise to mythical narratives.

The mythopœic fertility of the Greeks.

Grote.

Mythoplasm noun [ Greek my^qos myth + pla`ssein to form.] A narration of mere fable.

Mythopoetic adjective [ Greek my^qos myth + ... able to make, producing, from poiei^n to make.] Making or producing myths or mythical tales.

Mytiloid adjective [ Mytilus + -oid .] (Zoology) Like, or pertaining to, the genus Mytilus, or family Mytilidæ .

Mytilotoxine noun [ Mytilus + toxic .] (Physiol. Chem.) A poisonous base (leucomaine) found in the common mussel. It either causes paralysis of the muscles, or gives rise to convulsions, including death by an accumulation of carbonic acid in the blood.

Mytilus noun [ Latin , a sea mussel, Greek ....] (Zoology) A genus of marine bivalve shells, including the common mussel. See Illust. under Byssus .

Myxœdema noun [ New Latin from Greek ... mucus + œdema .] (Medicine) A disease producing a peculiar cretinoid appearance of the face, slow speech, and dullness of intellect, and due to failure of the functions of the thyroid gland. -- Myx`œ*dem"a*tous adjective , Myx`œ*dem"ic adjective

Myxa noun [ Latin , a lamp nozzle, Greek ....] (Zoology) The distal end of the mandibles of a bird.

Myxine noun (Zoology) A genus of marsipobranchs, including the hagfish. See Hag , 4.

Myxinoid adjective (Zoology) Like, or pertaining to, the genus Myxine. -- noun A hagfish.