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Permanent link for this word: St. Elmo's fire

May 21, 2010

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Whose what?

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Ockham's razor
Morton's fork
Hobson's choice
Achilles' heel
St. Elmo's fire

St. Elmo's fire on a ship

An illustration from the 1875 book The Aerial World by Dr. G. Hartwig

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

St. Elmo's fire

PRONUNCIATION:

(saynt EL-mohz fyr)

MEANING:

noun: An electrical discharge visible at the surface of a conductor, as a ship's mast or an airplane's wing.

ETYMOLOGY:

After St. Erasmus (mispronounced as Elmo by sailors) who is regarded as the patron saint of sailors and an electrical discharge on the mast of a ship is believed to be a sign of his protection. This phenomenon of corona discharge is also called St. Elmo's light.

USAGE:

"When Capt Moody opened the door to the cockpit he saw the windscreen ablaze with a St. Elmo's fire -- a discharge of static electricity."
When Volcanic Ash Stopped a Jumbo at 37,000ft; BBC News (London, UK); Apr 15, 2010.

"Donald Holder's lighting design needed more pizzazz, particularly in scenes like the storm that sparks St. Elmo's fire on the ship's masts."
Heidi Waleson; Taming the Whale; The Wall Street Journal (New York); May 4, 2010.

See more usage examples of St. Elmo's fire in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me. -Banksy, street artist (b. 1974)

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