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enigma [enigma 词源字典]: enigma: [16] Enigma comes, via Latin, from Greek aínigma ‘riddle, obscure statement’. This was a derivative of the verb ainíssesthai ‘talk in riddles’, which in turn came from the noun ainos ‘tale, story’. Its modern English use for ‘something puzzling’ dates from the early 17th century.
[enigma etymology, enigma origin, 英语词源]
enigma (n.): 1530s, "statement which conceals a hidden meaning or known thing under obscure words or forms," earlier enigmate (mid-15c.), from Latin aenigma "riddle," from Greek ainigma (plural ainigmata) "a dark saying, riddle," from ainissesthai "speak obscurely, speak in riddles," from ainos "tale, story; saying, proverb;" according to Liddell & Scott, a poetic and Ionic word, of unknown origin. General sense in English of "anything inexplicable to an observer" is from c. 1600.
Oedipal (adj.): 1939, "of or pertaining to desire felt for opposite-sex parent," from Oedipus complex (1910), coined by Freud from Sophocles' play "Oedipus Tyrannus," in which the title character, the Theban hero, answers the Sphinx's riddle and unknowingly kills his father and marries his own mother; from Greek Oedipus. The name was used figuratively in English from 1550s for "one who is clever at guessing riddles," which had adjectival form Oedipean (1620s).
Oedipus: son of Laius and Jocasta, the king and queen of Thebes, Greek, literally "swollen-foot," from oidan "to swell" (from PIE *oid-; see edema) + pous (genitive podos) "foot," from PIE root *ped- (1) "a foot" (see foot (n.)). Oedipus complex (1910) coined by Freud. In Latin, figurative references to Oedipus generally referred to solving riddles. Oedipus effect (1957) is Karl Popper's term for "the self-fulfilling nature of prophecies or predictions."