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#229300 06/11/19 02:43 PM
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MIDAS TOUCH

PRONUNCIATION: (MY-duhs tuhch)

MEANING: noun: The ability to easily make anything profitable.

ETYMOLOGY: After the legendary King Midas who was given the power that anything he touched turned into gold. Earliest documented use: 1652.

NOTES: Be careful what you wish for. That’s the moral of the story of King Midas. He was given the power by Dionysus that anything he touched would turn into gold. His happiness was momentary. Soon he learned that he couldn’t eat anything because as soon as he touched food it would turn into gold and all that glitters is inedible. His father Gordias has an eponym coined after him too.
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AIDA'S TOUCH - what makes Verdi's opera a masterpiece

MIDAS TOUGH - one-time sales slogan for car mufflers

MID-EAST OUCH - the Gaza Strip

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PHILIPPIC

PRONUNCIATION: (fi-LIP-ik)

MEANING: noun: A bitter condemnation, usually in a speech.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek philippikos, the name given to orator Demosthenes’s speeches urging Athenians to rise up against Philip II of Macedon. Earliest documented use: 1550.
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PHILIPP, INC - the makers of Milk of Magnesia have very quietly changed their name

PHILIP PICE - India has issued a new small coin bearing the image of the Duke of Edinburgh, now 98

PHILIP, PC - ...now that he has an official policy of never offending anyone any more

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HERM

PRONUNCIATION: (huhrm)
also herma (HUHR-muh), plural hermae (HUHR-mee) or hermai (HUHR-my) or herms

MEANING: noun: A square pillar topped with a bust.

ETYMOLOGY: After Hermes, the god of roads, boundaries, eloquence, commerce, invention, cunning, theft, and more, in Greek mythology. Earliest documented use: 1579.

NOTES: In ancient Greece, herm was a stone pillar with a square base. It had a bust of Hermes at the top and a phallus at the appropriate height. It was typically used as a boundary marker, milestone, or signpost.
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HERR M. - how Sir Miles Messervy is addressed in Berlin

HERA - the many wives of Zeus (each one being a Herum)

HER MD - the degree earned by the lady doctor

pH ER M - the acidity of the thirteenth Emergency Room

wofahulicodoc #229316 06/13/19 07:51 PM
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Quote
"also HERMA - (HUHR-muh), plural hermae (HUHR-mee) "

HERMAN - what Johnny was to Frankie ((but he done her wrong)

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ACHILLES' HEEL

PRONUNCIATION: (uh-KIL-eez heel)

MEANING: noun: A seemingly small but critical weakness in an otherwise strong position.

ETYMOLOGY: After Achilles, a hero in the Greek mythology. When Achilles was a baby, his mother Thetis dipped him into the magical river Styx to make him invincible. She held him by the heel which remained untouched by the water and became his weak point. He was killed when the Trojan prince Paris shot an arrow that pierced his one vulnerable spot: his heel. After him, the tendon in the lower back of the ankle is also known as the Achilles tendon. Earliest documented use: 1705.

NOTES: ...The actor Brad Pitt played Achilles in the 2004 film Troy and tore his left Achilles tendon during production. Talk about taking a role seriously!
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ACHILLES HEAL - sewing the tendon back together

ACHILLES' HELL - tearing the other one

A.C. HILLE STEEL - what the blast furnaces of industrial magnate Arthur Charles Hille produce

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SOCRATIC IRONY

PRONUNCIATION: (suh-KRAT-ik EYE-ruh-nee)

MEANING: noun: A profession of ignorance in a discussion in order to elicit clarity on a topic and expose misconception held by another.

ETYMOLOGY: After Greek philosopher Socrates (470?-399 BCE) who employed this method. Earliest documented use: 1721.
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SOCRATIC IRONS - what Socrates used to hit the ball off the grass

SOCRATIC CRONY - Xanthippe

SOURATIC IRONY - when the grape farmer says of the escaping crow, ""Well, he was too scrawny to make very good eating anyway..."

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MIDAS-EARED

PRONUNCIATION: (MY-duhs eerd)

MEANING: adjective:
1. Having poor judgment.
2. Having inability to appreciate something.

ETYMOLOGY: After the legendary King Midas (of Midas touch fame) whose ears Apollo turned into a donkey’s ears for suggesting that Apollo’s musical rival Marsyas played better music. Earliest documented use: 1569.

NOTES: The god Apollo and the satyr Marsyas had a musical contest (in another version of the story it was the god Pan instead of Marsyas). The mountain-god Tmolus served as the judge and declared Apollo the winner. King Midas, in his kibitzing wisdom, favored Marsyas as the winner. This upset Apollo who said that Midas’s musical judgment implied that he had donkey’s ears and made his ears those of a donkey’s. (Not to be confused with donkey’s years.)

Then, Apollo had his musical opponent Marsyas skinned alive. (Not that serene, was he, as his reputation in the eponym Apollonian suggests?) Now you know why back then they didn’t have Greece’s Got Talent on Mount Olympus. Who would be foolish enough to sign up as a judge (Simon Cowell wasn’t born yet) and who would dare to be a contestant?
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MIDAS BARED - gold clothing is kinda stiff, after all

VIDA SEARED - pitcher Blue was really throwing heat today

MID-ASIA RED - a Chinese chicken

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PHILIPPIZE

PRONUNCIATION: (FIL-uh-pyz)

MEANING: verb tr.: To behave, especially to speak or write, as if corruptly influenced.

ETYMOLOGY: After Philip II of Macedon. It was believed that after Philip took control of the shrine at Delphi, the seat of high priestess Pythia, she began delivering oracles in his favor. Earliest documented use: 1597.
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PILIPPIZE - to cover with microscopic projections; to fimbriate

CHILIPPIZE - to lace with hot peppers

PHILIPPRIZE - an award given by an eastern Pennsylvania city

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HERMENEUTIC

PRONUNCIATION: (hur-muh-NOO/NYOO-tik)

MEANING: adjective: Interpretive or explanatory.

ETYMOLOGY: From Greek hermeneutikos (of interpreting), from hermeneuein (to interpret), from hermeneus (interpreter). After Hermes in Greek mythology, who served as a messenger and herald for other gods, and who himself was the god of eloquence, commerce, invention, cunning, theft, and more. Earliest documented use: 1678..
Other words that Hermes has given us are hermaphrodite, hermetic, and herm.
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HEMENEUTIC - mansplaining

HERMENEUTIA - the tiny things she's always fussing over

HERMENAUTIC - yacht-racing

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ACHILLIZE

PRONUNCIATION: (UH-ki-lyz)

MEANING: verb tr.: To harass or chase.

ETYMOLOGY: After Achilles, a hero in the Greek mythology. When his close friend Patroclus is killed by Hector, a vengeful Achilles chases Hector around the wall of Troy three times. Also, he causes great carnage among Trojans. Earliest documented use: 1672. Also see Achilles’ heel.

NOTES: Achilles is better known for his heel, but his anger is so prominent that it’s a popular subject in paintings. For example, The Wrath of Achilles (1630-1635) by Peter Paul Rubens, The Rage of Achilles (1757) by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and La Colère d’Achille (1847) by Léon Benouville.
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A.C. HILL ICE - we'll air-condition the entire mountain!

A CHILD LIZE - but then, all kids stretch the truth at times

A CHILLI ZED - the British alphabet ends coldly
(or hotly, from a culinary viewpoint)

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