Titan¹

[a. L. Tītan, -ānem, name of the elder brother of Kronos, and ancestor of the Titans; also in poetry his grandson, the Sun-god = Hēlios; a. Gr. Τῑτᾱν, in pl. Τιτᾶνες, the Titans, a race of gods expelled by Zeus out of heaven. So F., Sp. Titan, Pg. Titão, It. Titano, Du., Ger. Titan.]

  1.  Used (chiefly in poetry) as a name for the Sun-god, Sol, or for the sun personified.

1412–20.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, III. 5416. Þe dede cors to carien in-to toun Of worþi Hector, whan Titan went doun.

1501.  Douglas, Pal. Hon., Prol. 33. The assiltrie and goldin chair of price Of Tytan, quhilk at morrow semis reid.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. x. 25. Let Titan rise as early as he dare.

1638.  Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (ed. 2), 2. The third of April at Titans first blush [ed. 1634 early in the morning] we got sight of Porto Santo.

1708.  J. Philips, Cyder, I. 10. Then wo to Mortals! Titan then exerts His Heat intense, and on our Vitals preys.

1911.  Sir E. Ridley, in 19th Cent., May, 870. Till flaming Titan nigh to either Pole Beheld thy empire.

  2.  a. Gr. Mythol. In sing. The ancestor of the Titans: see etymology above. In pl. a family of giants, the children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gæa (Earth), who contended for the sovereignty of heaven and were overthrown by Zeus.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 510. Th’ Ionian Gods … Titan Heav’ns first born with his enormous brood, and birthright seis’d By younger Saturn.

1727–41.  Chambers, Cycl., s.v., This war lasted ten years; but at length the Titans were vanquished; Jupiter remained in peaceable possession of heaven, and the Titans were buried under huge mountains thrown on their heads.

1858.  Bushnell, Serm. New Life, ii. (1869), 19. A race of Titans broken loose from order and warring on God and each other.

1908.  G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, viii. (1909), 258. The Titans did not scale heaven; but they laid waste the world.

  b.  transf. and allusively, usually denoting a person (mountain, tree, etc.) of gigantic stature or strength, physical or intellectual, a ‘giant’; sometimes, one who belongs to the race of ‘giants’ as distinct from the Olympians or ‘gods.’

1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, xxvii. The clan of Titans seemed to be commanded by their appropriate chieftains—… Ben Lawers, and … Ben Mohr. Ibid. (1829), Anne of G., vi. The sun was just about to kiss the top of the most gigantic of that race of Titans [the Swiss mountains].

1838.  Emerson, Addr., Lit. Ethics, Wks. (Bohn), II. 205. Men looked … that nature … should reimburse itself by a brood of Titans.

1870.  Swinburne, Ess. & Stud. (1875), 260. The ranks of great men are properly divisible, not into thinkers and workers, but into Titans and Olympians.

1903.  J. Stewart, Dawn in Dark Cont., i. 22. The weary Titan need not complain too much.

  c.  Applied descriptively to machines of great size and power; e.g., a dredger, crane, etc.

1876.  Daily News, 30 Oct., 6/4. A novel kind of dredger is in use, consisting of a centrifugal pump, called a ‘Titan,’ which raises the sand together with a certain proportion of water, and discharges it in the barges.

1894.  Times, 29 Jan., 14/2. A titan steam crane will be mounted on deck for moving any of the heavy parts for examination or repair.

1911.  Encycl. Brit., IV. 479. These sloping blocks are laid by powerful overhanging, block-setting cranes, called Titans, which travel along the completed portion of the breakwater, and lay the blocks in advance.

  3.  Astron. Name of the sixth and largest of Saturn’s eight satellites.

1858.  Lockyer, Guillemin’s Heavens (ed. 3), 252. The diameter of Titan, the largest satellite,… is … more than half the diameter of the Earth.

1878.  Newcomb, Pop. Astron., III. iv. 353. The smallest telescope will show Titan.

  4.  attrib. or as adj.; transf. Titanic, gigantic.

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, VI. 782. The rivals of the Gods, the Titan race.

1851.  Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., i. As though … hurled from the hands of Titan giants!

1858.  N. J. Gannon, O’Donoghue, etc., Lines on Late War. Such hands as theirs have more than Titan strength.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xx. 139. The Titan obelisk of the Matterhorn.

1860.  C. Sangster, Hesperus, etc., 53. Titan strength and queenly beauty.

  b.  attrib. and Comb. (chiefly in sense 2), as Titan-born, -like adjs.; also (from 1) † Titan beam, a sunbeam.

a. 1649.  Drumm. of Hawth., Poems, Wks. (1711), 44. Whilst eagles stare on Titan beams.

1816.  Byron, Ch. Har., III. cv. Their steep aim Was, Titan-like, on daring doubts to pile Thoughts which should call down thunder and the flame Of Heaven.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, xxvii. (1852), 467. Thoughts which were once my masters, now I hold In retributive bondage, Titanlike.

1847.  Emerson, Poems (1857), 45. Titan-born, to hardy natures Cold is genial and dear.

1854.  Mary E. Hewitt, Poems, 81.

1904.  Speaker, 28 May, 206/2. The Trip-shake and Tumble-tread of Titan-footed Reels.