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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Phaeton

Phaeton \Pha"["e]*ton\, n. [F. pha['e]ton a kind of carriage, fr. Pha['e]thon Pha["e]thon, the son of Helios. See Pha["e]thon.]

  1. A four-wheeled carriage (with or without a top), open, or having no side pieces, in front of the seat. It is drawn by one or two horses.

  2. See Pha["e]thon.

  3. (Zo["o]l.) A handsome American butterfly ( Euphydryas Pha["e]ton syn. Melit[ae]a Pha["e]ton). The upper side of the wings is black, with orange-red spots and marginal crescents, and several rows of cream-colored spots; -- called also Baltimore.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
phaeton

type of light four-wheeled carriage, 1742, from French (1735), from Greek Phaethon name of the son of Helios and Clymene, who tried to drive his father's sun-chariot but crashed after almost setting fire to the whole earth. His name is literally "shining," from phaein "to shine, gleam," from phaos "light" (see fantasy). Earlier as a name for a reckless driver (1590s).

Wiktionary
phaeton

n. 1 (context vehicles English) a light four-wheeled open carriage drawn by four horses 2 (context automotive English) a large open touring motorcar with a folding top

WordNet
phaeton

n. large open car seating four with folding top [syn: touring car, tourer]

Wikipedia
Phaeton

Phaeton, Phaëton, Phaethon, or Phaëthon may refer to:

Phaeton (carriage)

A Phaeton (also Phaéton) was a form of sporty open carriage popular in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Drawn by one or two horses, a phaeton typically featured a minimal very lightly sprung body atop four extravagantly large wheels. With open seating, it was both fast and dangerous, giving rise to its name, drawn from the mythical Phaëton, son of Helios, who nearly set the earth on fire while attempting to drive the chariot of the sun.

With the advent of the automobile, the term was adapted to open touring cars, also known as phaetons.

Phaeton (hypothetical planet)

Phaeton (or Phaëton, less often Phaethon) is the hypothetical planet posited to have existed between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter whose destruction supposedly led to the formation of the asteroid belt. The hypothetical planet was named for Phaëton, the son of the sun god Helios in Greek mythology, who attempted to drive his father's solar chariot for a day with disastrous results and was ultimately destroyed by Zeus.

The asteroid 3200 Phaethon, sometimes incorrectly spelled Phaeton, is a Mercury-, Venus-, Earth-, and Mars- orbit crossing Apollo asteroid with unusual properties.

Phaëton (Lully)

Phaëton (LWV 61) is a tragédie en musique in a prologue and five acts by Jean-Baptiste Lully. Philippe Quinault wrote the French libretto after a story from Ovid's Metamorphoses. It can be read as an allegorical depiction of the punishment awaiting those mortals who dare to raise themselves as high as the "sun" (i.e. the Sun King).

Phaëton was the first lyric tragedy of Lully and Quinault to receive its world premiere at the Palace of Versailles, where it was given without stage machinery on or about 6 January 1683. The Paris Opera also performed it at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal (beginning on 27 April), where it was very successful with the general public. The performances ceased for thirty days of mourning following the death of the queen on 30 July 1683, but resumed thereafter and continued until 12 or 13 January 1684. The opera was revived at the Palais-Royal in 1692, 1702, 1710, 1721, 1730, and 1742. It was sometimes referred to as "the people's opera", just as Lully's Isis came to be called "the musician's opera" (because of its score), and his Atys, as "the king's opera" (one of Louis XIV's favorite works).

Usage examples of "phaeton".

Giving up, she tied Acorn to the back, retrieved the offside ribbon, then climbed into the phaeton.

I had apair like that once, at Hartlea, though I did not have a high-perch phaeton, but a curricle.

We came back, and I was astonished to hear her telling her father that the phaeton was mine, and all he had to do was to put in the horses.

As I finished this sentence her father came in, and I left the house telling him that if I could not come the next day I would come the day after, and that we could talk about the phaeton then.

But the father, who was as greedy as most Jews are, said that if I liked driving he could sell me a pretty phaeton with two excellent horses.

In extreme agitation Erast Fandorin leapt to his feet and even rose up on the tips of his toes, gazing after the phaeton, which had slipped through ahead of the obstruction.

Tongas cut into her nerves, the stuffy gharry made her head ache, and the springless phaetons which abound in the East she avoided as the plague.

She would relish the phaeton, as she had relished the horse, but I knew that I was not quite such a fool as that.

He was very fond of money, and must have been angry that his daughter had not made me buy the phaeton by some means or another, for so long as the phaeton was bought the rest would be perfectly indifferent to him.

What had they done to the poor syce, she wondered, for this driver of the phaeton was surely not her careful servant.

The phaeton was there as well as the carriage for two persons, which this time was an elegant vis-a-vis, so light and well-hung that Donna Cecilia praised it highly when she took her seat.

Collins for the knowledge of what carriages went along, and how often especially Miss de Bourgh drove by in her phaeton, which he never failed coming to inform them of, though it happened almost every day.

He jerked his head round, heedless of the phaeton, and the next instant the wheels of both vehicles were locked, and much more violent expletives were issuing from the lips of the down-the-road man.

She made her way to the paddock where the horses were grazing and asked a postilion to help her harness them into the burgundy phaeton.

It was sent on its way by a battery of laser cannon set up on Phaeton, an asteroid whose orbit takes it closer to the sun than Mercury.