Amphinomus

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A noble suitor of Penelope in Homer's Odyssey who courted her while Odysseus was away and was later slain by Telemachus
2. The name of a young Greek nobleman in Homer's epic who was one of the many suitors pursuing Penelope in Ithaca
3. In Greek epic, a suitor of Penelope on Ithaca, distinguished from the others for his gentler manner before he was killed

Etymology: Amphinomus is a proper name, not a common word, and its story lives entirely in Homer. In the Odyssey, Amphinomus is one of the suitors who crowd Odysseus's palace on Ithaca, courting Penelope while devouring his household. He stands out among them as the one who warns the others that their violence is wrong, and he is killed by Telemachus, though he is spared by Odysseus's son in a later sense only in some retellings, so the Homeric text is the safest guide here. His name is built from two Greek elements: "amphi," meaning "on both sides" or "around," and "nomos," meaning "pasture" or "law." Ancient readers often took the sense as "one who travels on both sides," and the name was given to several other Greek figures, including a Trojan ally, which suggests it was a fairly common heroic name rather than a coinage made for one character.