Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Greek Mythology A Trojan boy of great beauty whom Zeus carried away to be his lover and to be cupbearer to the gods.
  • noun One of the four brightest satellites of Jupiter. Originally sighted by Galileo, it is the largest satellite in the solar system.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The third and largest satellite of the planet Jupiter.
  • noun In Greek myth, the cupbearer of Zeus or of the Olympian gods, originally a beautiful Trojan youth, transferred to Olympus (according to Homer by the gods, according to others by the eagle of Zeus or by Zeus himself in the form of an eagle), and made immortal.
  • noun Figuratively, a cup-bearer; a waiter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun Greek mythology A Trojan boy who was abducted (either by Zeus or Eos), and ultimately became immortal in order to be Zeus' cup-bearer and lover.
  • proper noun astronomy A moon of Jupiter.
  • proper noun A servant boy or young waiter, particularly one who serves liquor.
  • proper noun A boy kept for pederastic purposes; a catamite.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the largest of Jupiter's satellites
  • noun (Greek mythology) a Trojan boy who was so beautiful that Zeus carried him away to serve as cupbearer to the gods

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin Ganymēdēs, from Greek Ganumēdēs.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek Γανυμήδης (Ganumēdēs, "meant to please"), from γάνυμαι (ganumai, "I rejoice, I am glad") + μῆδος (mēdos, "thought, intention").

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