Allusion 76-90 Flashcards
- Philistines/Phillistinism
ORIGIN) Caphtor (Possibly Crete, although there is no archaeological evidence of a Phillistine occupation of the island.
DEFINITION) A person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts, or who has no understanding of them.
- Faust/Faustian Bargain
ORIGIN) German legend a magician and alchemist who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Apparently based on Johann George Faust, a magician & alchemist probably from Knittlingen, Wattemburg.
DEFINITION) A pact whereby a person trades something of supreme moral or spiritual importance.
- Carrying Coal to NewCastle
ORIGIN) First documented in North America in 1679 in William Fitzhugh’s letters.
DEFINITION) To do something that is obviously superfluous.
- Freudian Slip
ORIGIN) Freud based his idea on his work with a young man who misquoted a Latin phrase from “The Aeneid”
DEFINITION) An unintentional error regarded as revealing subconscious feelings.
- Sisyphus/Sisyphean
ORIGIN) Greek mythology. The King from Corinth, became infamous for his general trickery when he twice cheated death. (Forever rolling a boulder up a hill).
DEFINITION) There is no greater meaning in life but what we give it.
- Methuseluh
ORIGIN) Biblical name means “one who was sent” or “man of the dart”. From the Hebrew Bible, longest living human, lived until he was 969.
DEFINITION) A wine bottle of eight times the standard size/”one who was sent” or “man of the dart”.
- Scylla & Charybdis
ORIGIN) Greek Mythology/Homer’s Odyssey. Two sea monsters that inhabited opposite sides of a channel of water.
DEFINITION) To choose the lesser of two evils/to be caught between two equally unpleasant alternatives.
- The Holy Grail
ORIGIN) Originated in Ireland as folklore and later appeared in the Prophetic Ecstacy of the Phantom, an irish tale.
DEFINITION) The cup or platter used by Jesus at the last supper, and later used to collect his blood at his crucifixtion/a thing that is eagerly pursued or sought after.
- Luddites
ORIGIN) British laborers in the early 1800s who opposed industrialization (feared they would lose their jobs). LEader was Ned Ludd. They smashed machinery in protest.
DEFINITION) Someone who opposed change, especially industrial or technological advances.
- Buck
ORIGIN) A “back” in poker was a marker that was passed to the person who turn it was to deal. President Harry Truman kept a sign on his desk which read “The Buck Stops Here”.
DEFINITION) To shift responsibility and often blame to another person.
- Babylon
ORIGIN) Capitol of ancient Babylonian Empire known for its luxury and corruption. Jews were exiled there from 597-538 B.C.E
DEFINITION) A place of decadence and corruption.
- Phoenix/Rising from the Ashes
ORIGIN) Mythological bird that lived for 500-600 years, after which it would burn itself to death & then rise from its own ashes as a youthful bird ready to live another life time.
DEFINITION) Renewal and the possibility of a fresh start
- Xanadu
ORIGIN) Ancient city in Mongolia where Kublai Khan had a magnificant residence. Xanadu was made famous by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in the poem “Kubla Khan” (1816). “In Xanadu did Kunbla Khan/A stately pleasure-dome decree.”
DEFINITION) A magnificent beautiful, almost magical place.
- Muckrakers
ORIGIN) It became popular after President Theodore Roosevelt referred to the character in a 1906 speech; Roosevelt acknowledged that “the men with the muck rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck.”
DEFINITION) A person, especially one in a news organization, who tries to find out unpleasant information about people or organizations in order to make it public
- Sine Quo Non
ORIGIN) Latin phrase meaning “without which, nothing”
DEFINITION) The essential ingredient without which an endeavor or a situation would be impossible.
