/fee"niks/ , n., gen. Phoenicis /fee nuy"sis, -nee"-/ for 2.
1. ( sometimes cap. ) a mythical bird of great beauty fabled to live 500 or 600 years in the Arabian wilderness, to burn itself on a funeral pyre, and to rise from its ashes in the freshness of youth and live through another cycle of years: often an emblem of immortality or of reborn idealism or hope.
2. ( cap. ) Astron. a southern constellation between Hydrus and Sculptor.
3. a person or thing of peerless beauty or excellence; paragon.
4. a person or thing that has become renewed or restored after suffering calamity or apparent annihilation.
Also, phenix .
[ bef. 900; phoînix a mythical bird, purple-red color, Phoenician, date palm; r. ME, OE fenix ]