a. [f. L. Apollōni-us, a. Gr. ἀπολλὼνι-ος of Apollo; also pr. name + -IAN.]
1. Pertaining to, resembling, or having the characteristics of Apollo, the sun-god of the Greeks and Romans, the patron of music and poetry.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, B vj a. To destroy the very foundation of it: partly on pretence that … the string of an Apollonian-like harp did not sound pleasing to their ears.
a. 1822. Shelley, Hymn to Merc., lxiii. Every Apollonian limb Is clothed with speed, and might, and manliness.
2. Of Apollonius of Perga, a famous Greek geometer and investigator of conic sections.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Hyperbola, The Apollonian Hyperbola is … the Hyperbola of the first kind; thus called in contradistinction to the hyperbolas of the higher kinds.
1798. Atwood, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVIII. 208. The Apollonian or conic parabola.
