Definitions

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

  • noun Greek Mythology A Titan condemned by Zeus to support the heavens upon his shoulders.
  • noun A person who supports a great burden.

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

  • proper noun Greek mythology son of Iapetus and Clymene, war leader of the Titans ordered by the god Zeus to support the sky on his shoulders; father to Hesperides, the Hyades, and the Pleiades; king of the legendary Atlantis.
  • proper noun astronomy a moon of Saturn
  • proper noun astronomy a crater in the first quadrant of the moon
  • proper noun warfare, US Intercontinental ballistic missile

Etymologies

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

[Greek Atlās; see telə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek Ἄτλας, meaning "The Bearer (of the Heavens)", from τλῆναι (tlēnai, "to thole, suffer, endure, bear"). See tolerate.

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