English
Pronunciation
Proper noun
Pandora's box
- (Greek mythology) A box given to Pandora by Zeus, whose instructions stated that it must not be opened, and were then ignored, leading to disastrous consequences.
Noun
Pandora's box (plural Pandora's boxes)
- (idiomatic) A source of unforeseen trouble.
- Synonym: Pandora's jar
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Morality of Diamonds”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 16:There was an evil in Pandora's box
Beyond all other ones, yet it came forth
In guise so lovely, that men crowded round
And sought it as the dearest of all treasure.
1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, →ISBN, page 371:The first thing it did was to spawn a whole Pandora's box of DNA viruses—smallpox, influenza and so on.
Translations
a source of unforeseen trouble
- Albanian: kutia e Pandorës
- Arabic: please add this translation if you can
- Armenian: Պանդորայի արկղ (Pandorayi arkġ), Պանդորայի տուփ (Pandorayi tupʻ)
- Bashkir: Пандора ҡумтаһы (Pandora qumtahı)
- Basque: please add this translation if you can
- Bulgarian: кутията на Пандора (kutijata na Pandora)
- Catalan: capsa de Pandora
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 潘多拉魔盒 (zh) (Pānduōlā móhé), 災難之源 / 灾难之源 (zāinàn zhī yuán)
- Czech: Pandořina skříňka f
- Danish: Pandoras æske c
- Dutch: doos van Pandora f
- Esperanto: skatolo de Pandora
- Faroese: eskjan hjá Pandoru f
- Finnish: Pandoran lipas (fi)
- French: boîte de Pandore (fr) f
- Georgian: პანდორას ყუთი (ṗandoras q̇uti)
- German: Pandorabüchse f, Büchse der Pandora (de) f
- Greek: κουτί της Πανδώρας n (koutí tis Pandóras)
- Hebrew: תיבת פנדורה (he) f
- Hindi: पैन्डोरा का बॉक्स (painḍorā kā bŏks)
- Hungarian: Pandóra szelencéje (hu)
- Icelandic: askja Pandóru
- Indonesian: kotak Pandora
- Italian: vaso di Pandora m
- Japanese: パンドラの箱 (パンドラのはこ, Pandora no hako), パンドーラーの箱 (パンドーラーのはこ, Pandōrā no hako), 玉手箱 (ja) (たまてばこ, tamatebako) (treasure box from "Urashima Taro" tale)
- Kazakh: Пандора қалбыры (Pandora qalbyry)
- Korean: 판도라의 상자 (pandoraui sangja), 판도라의 함 (pandoraui ham), 판도라의 항아리 (pandoraui hang'ari)
- Latvian: Pandoras lāde f
- Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
- Macedonian: Пандорина кутија (Pandorina kutija)
- Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
- Norwegian: pandoraeske
- Occitan: boita de Pandora
- Polish: puszka Pandory (pl) f
- Portuguese: caixa de Pandora (pt) f
- Punjabi: ਪੰਡੋਰਾ ਦਾ ਡੱਬਾ (paṇḍorā dā ḍabbā)
- Romanian: cutia Pandorei
- Russian: я́щик Пандо́ры (ru) m (jáščik Pandóry)
- Spanish: caja de Pandora (es) f
- Swedish: Pandoras ask c, pandorasask (sv) c
- Tamil: பண்டோராவின் பெட்டி (paṇṭōrāviṉ peṭṭi)
- Thai: please add this translation if you can
- Turkish: Pandora'nın kutusu
- Ukrainian: скринька Пандори (skrynʹka Pandory)
- Uzbek: Pandora qutisi
- Vietnamese: chiếc hộp Pandora
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See also