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‖ Proteus|ˈprəʊtjuːs, ˈprəʊtiːəs|
[L. Prōteus, a. Gr. Πρωτεύς proper name.]
1. Gr. and Rom. Mythol. A sea-god, the son of Oceanus and Tethys, fabled to assume various shapes.
c1400Rom. Rose 6319 Protheus, that coude him chaunge In every shap, hoomly and straunge. 1620T. Granger Div. Logike 137 More mutable then Proteus. 1639S. Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events a j b, Falsehood is..capable of more different formes, than the..Proteus of Poets. 1806Wordsw. Sonn., The world is too much with us 13 So might I..Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
2. Hence allusively, One who, or that which, assumes various forms, aspects, or characters; a changing, varying, or inconstant person or thing.
1585J. Hart æsop's Fables 111 A Protheus..vnstedfast in word and ded. 1589Cooper Admon. 28 Such a subtile Protheus hee is, that he can turn himself into all maner of shapes. 1685Gracian's Courtier's Orac. 76 He is a wise Proteus that is holy with the holy,..serious with the serious, and jovial with the merry. 1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. 4 Mar. (1810) 17 Being such Proteus's in religion, that no body was ever able to discover what shape or standard their consciences are really of. 1823R. Hall Wks. (1841) V. 62 Mental phenomena form a Proteus which is constantly changing its aspect.
3. Zool. and Biol.
a. A name for the protozoon now called amœba. (Now disused as a generic name.) Also proteus animalcule, † p. insect.
1802Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) III. 492 Some..if viewed in a microscope, will be found to contain, among several other animalcules, the Proteus. 1806P. Wakefield Dom. Recreat. vi. 85, I shall find plenty of the Proteus insect in it. 1888Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life 256 Amœba Proteus or A. princeps, the Proteus animalcule..is to be found in the upper layers of soft ooze at the bottom of still clear lakes, ponds, and ditches.
b. A genus of tailed amphibians with persistent gills, having four short slender legs and a long eel-like body, found in subterranean caves in Austria. [Adopted as the name of a genus by J. N. Laurenti in his Synopsis Reptilium (1768) 35.] = olm.
a1829H. Davy Consolations in Travel (1830) iv. 190 The same infinite power..has given the Proteus to the deep and dark subterraneous lakes of Illyria,—an animal to whom the presence of light is not essential. 1835Kirby Hab. & Inst. Anim. II. xxii. 419 The Proteus is about a foot in length..the body is cylindrical. 1854Owen Skel. & Teeth in Orr's Circ. Sc. I. Org. Nat. 188 In the proteus the last segment of the fore-limb divides into three rays. 1860Gosse Rom. Nat. Hist. 76 The proteus, a strange sort of salamander found in the lakes of immense caverns in Illyria. 1902Baskett & Ditmars Story of Amphibians & Reptiles vii. 48 Proteus..lives in a cave in Austria. 1965B. E. Freeman tr. Vandel's Biospeleol. iii. 23 Proteus represents a veritable giant amongst the European cave fauna, because it reaches a length of 30 cm.
c. The name given to a group of bacteria, some of which are saprophytes and some pathogenic.
1896Allbutt's Syst. Med. I. 529 The list of putrefactive organisms includes various forms of proteus (vulgaris, mirabilis, Zenkeri), for which formerly the name bacterium termo had to do duty. 1897Ibid. III. 748 Dr. Booker states that a group which he calls the ‘proteus’ group of bacteria was represented in fifteen out of nineteen cases.
4. a. attrib. Changeable like Proteus, protean. proteus animalcule, proteus insect = sense 3 a. b. Comb. as Proteus-like adj. and adv.
1687Dryden Hind & P. iii. 818 O Proteus Conscience, never to be tied! 1718Entertainer No. 34. 233 Who it is, that Proteus like has so often shifted his Meaning. 1733Cheyne Eng. Malady ii. viii. §4 (1734) 196 In such a Proteus-like Distemper. 1834Tait's Mag. I. 599/1 The fantastic tricks of this Proteus principle, become most amusing. 1839Carlyle Chartism iv. (1858) 22 English commerce with its..immeasurable Proteus Steam-demon, makes..all life a bewilderment.
Hence [irreg.] † Proˈteusian a. Obs. = Protean.
1689T. Plunket Char. Gd. Commander 51 Proteusian pranks, unthought of mysteries. |