Acanthus (plural: acanthus, rarely acanthuses in English, or acanthi in Latin), its feminine form acantha (plural: acanthae), the Latinised form of the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

word acanthos or akanthos, or the prefix acantho-, may refer to:

Biology

Acanthus (plant) ''Acanthus'' is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Acanthaceae, native to tropical and warm temperate regions, with the highest species diversity in the Mediterranean Basin and Asia. This flowering plant is nectar produ ...

, a genus containing plants used for ornament and in traditional medicine * Acanthus, an entomological term for a thorn-like projection on an insect, typically a single-celled cuticular growth without tormogen (socket) or sensory cells

Mythology

Acantha Acantha (Ancient Greek: , English translation: "thorn") is often claimed to be a minor character in Greek mythology whose metamorphosis was the origin of the '' Acanthus'' plant.Coulter, Charles Russell and Turner, Patricia (2000). ''Encycloped ...

, a figure in Greek mythology associated with the Acanthus plant *

Acanthus, son of Autonous In Greek mythology, Acanthus (Ancient Greek: Ακανθος ''Akanthos'' means 'thorn') was the son of Autonous (son of Melaneus) and Hippodamia. He was the brother of Acanthis, Erodius, Anthus and Schoeneus. The bird he turned into has been ide ...

who received his name after the plant, which was common in his infertile homeland

People

Acanthus of Sparta Acanthus the Lacedaemonian ( grc, Ἄκανθος), was the victor in two footrace events, the diaulos () and dolichos (), in the Olympic Games of 720 BC. He was also, according to some accounts, the first who ran naked in these games. Other ac ...

, an ancient athlete *Acanthus, the pen-name of the cartoonist

Frank Hoar Harold Frank Hoar, Royal Institute of British Architects, FRIBA (13 September 1909 – 3 October 1976) was a British architect, artist, academic and architectural historian. Hoar first came to public prominence when, at the age of 25, he wo ...

Places

Acanthus, Ontario Acanthus is an unincorporated place and former railway point in geographic Deacon Township in the Unorganized South Part of Nipissing District in northeastern Ontario, Canada. Acanthus is located within Algonquin Provincial Park on Cedar Lake o ...

, a modern Canadian town *

Acanthus (Caria) Acanthus or Akanthos ( grc, Ἄκανθος), also called Dulopolis or Doulopolis (Δουλόπολις), was a town of ancient Caria in the region of Bybassus Bybassus or Bybassos or Bubassus or Bubassos ( grc, Βυβασσός) was a town in anc ...

, a town of ancient Caria, near Bybassus *

Acanthus (Egypt) Acanthus (Greek: ; in Ptolemy, ) was an ancient city of Egypt, on the western bank of the Nile, 120 stadia south of Memphis. Ptol. iv. 5. § 55. Its site is located at the modern village of Dahshur. The town was in the Memphite Nome, and, therefo ...

, an ancient Egyptian city *

Akanthos (Greece) Akanthos ( grc, Ἄκανθος; la, Acanthus) was an ancient Greek city on the Athos peninsula, on the narrow neck of land between the sacred mountain and the mainland, to the northwest of the Xerxes Canal. It was founded in the 7th century BC ...

, an ancient Macedonian city * Acantha, County Offaly, a townland in the civil parish of Durrow, barony of Ballycowan, Ireland

Other uses

Acanthus (ornament) The acanthus ( grc, ἄκανθος) is one of the most common plant forms to make foliage ornament and decoration, and even as the leaf distinguishing the heraldic coronet of a manorial lord from other coronets of royalty or nobility, which us ...

, a form in architecture and in leather carving, from the plant *Acanthus path, a fictional tradition of enchanters, magicians and witches in the game '' Mage: The Awakening''

Biology

Mythology

People

Places

Other uses

See also