This week’s theme
Book titles that became words

This week’s words
brave new world
deipnosophist
Lord of the Flies


Wordsmith Games

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(lord uv thuh FLAIZ)

MEANING:

adjective: Marked by a breakdown of order into cruelty, chaos, and savagery.

ETYMOLOGY:

After Lord of the Flies (1954), a novel by William Golding. Earliest documented use: 1969.

NOTES:

In the novel, a group of English schoolboys are stranded on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. At first, they try to establish rules and live together peacefully, but their makeshift society descends into cruelty and savagery.

The title refers to Beelzebub, from Hebrew ba’al-zebub (lord of flies), the name of a Philistine god of the city of Ekron. In later Christian tradition, Beelzebub became identified with the prince of demons, or Satan.

USAGE:

“[HackForums] members were a shade more advanced in their skills and a shade murkier in their ethics: a Lord of the Flies collection of young hackers seeking to impress one another with nihilistic feats of exploitation.”
Andy Greenberg; The Confessions Of Marcus Hutchins; Wired (San Francisco, California); Jun 2020.

“[David Cameron, Boris Johnson, et al, were] all members of a secret society, a Lord of the Flies rich-boy club known for spectacular drunkenness and casual destructiveness.”
Michael Wolff; Cameron Obscura; Vanity Fair (New York); Apr 2010.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: