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Frankenstein

fran·kens·tein

UK/ˈfɹæŋ.kən.staɪn/ US/ˈfɹæŋ.kən.ʃtaɪn/ fairly common

noun

1.

an agency that escapes control and destroys its creator

2.

the monster created by Frankenstein in a gothic novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (the creator''s name is commonly used to refer to his creation)

Synonyms
3.

the fictional Swiss scientist who was the protagonist in a gothic novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley; he created a monster from parts of corpses

Origin

From German Frankenstein, various places named for Franken (“Franks, Frankish”) + Stein (“stone”). The use of referencing mad scientists derives from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus, where Victor Frankenstein assembles a man from pieces of various corpses and brings him to life with electricity. Use of the reference to the monster itself is an ellipsis of the earlier Frankenstein's monster, with the monster's usual modern appearance derived from Boris Karloff's performance in the 1931 film Frankenstein.

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.