- phoenix
- O.E. and O.Fr. fenix, from M.L. phenix, from Gk. phoinix "mythical bird," also "the date" (fruit and tree), also "Phoenician," lit. "purple-red," perhaps a foreign word, or from phoinos "blood-red." Exact relation and order of the senses in Gk. is unclear.
Ðone wudu weardaþ wundrum fæger
Fig. sense of "that which rises from the ashes of what was destroyed" is attested from 1591. The city in Arizona, U.S., so called because it was founded in 1867 on the site of an ancient Native American settlement.
fugel feþrum se is fenix hatan
["Phoenix," c.900]