Etymology From Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative first person singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “to find”). Archimedes supposedly exclaimed this when he figured out how to determine the density of an object. First use appears c. 1603 in a text by Philemon Holland.
1
An exclamation indicating a sudden discovery.
Eureka! I have found it! What I mean / To say is, not that love is idleness, / But that in love such idleness has been / An accessory, as I have cause to guess.1821, Byron, Don Juan:
"Eureka!" he cried, his teeth shining through his beard. "Gentlemen, you may congratulate me and we may congratulate each other. The problem is solved."1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:
1 more example
A page is turned - eureka, a snatch of tune / is playing itself, the piss-proud syllables / are unveiling a difficult prosody.1970, Peter Porter, The Sanitized Sonnets, The Last of England:
Etymology From Ancient Greek εὕρηκα (heúrēka, “I have found”), perfect active indicative first person singular of εὑρίσκω (heurískō, “to find”). Archimedes supposedly exclaimed this when he figured out how to determine the density of an object. First use appears c. 1603 in a text by Philemon Holland.