Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Allusions

609 Pages·2006·10.72 MB·English

Discover meanings you've been missing!

Merriam-
Webster's J
Dictionary of
ALLUSIONS
Understand the creative and colorful references
that add richness and vitality to our language

ELIZABETH WEBBER
& MIKE
FEINSILBER

A G E O F A Q U A R I U S
C I T Y ON A H I L L
ENDGAME

G R A S S Y
K N O L L
HAT TRICK
IRON T R I A N G L E

K E Y S T O N E K O P S
MICKEY
F I N N

O C T O B E R
S U R P R I S E

ROSETTA S T O N E

S E A C H A N G E
W I T C H I N G
H O U R

Merriam-Webster's
Mem Dictionary of
Wcbsi
ALLUSIONS

DISCOVER COLORFUL REFERENCES TO LITERATURE AND
MYTHOLOGY, HISTORY AND POLITICS, SCIENCE AND SPORTS

u

Discover the hidden meanings you've been missing.

Offers clear, concise definitions for more than 900 allusions,
from Achilles'heel and alpha male to Zen and Zuzu's petals

Increase your knowledge beyond the definition.

Provides the term's history, pronunciation, and

contemporary examples of the word or phrase used in context

Learn correct usage from the experts.

Examples come from works by leading authors, including

John Updike * Nat Hentoff * Cynthia Tucker * Joe Klein *

Camille Paglia * Molly Ivins * Jane Bryant Quinn *

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. * Anna Quindlen * Dave Barry * George Will

Learn the terms that are used today.

Features thousands of examples taken from today's top publications,
including The New York Times * The Atlantic Monthly * Life *

Rolling Stone * Smithsonian * Vanity Fair * The Wall Street Journal

FASCINATING FOR READERS, LANGUAGE LOVERS, AND ESL STUDENTS

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Merriam-Webster's
Dictionary
of
ALLUSIONS

Merriam-Webster's
Dictionary
of
ALLUSIONS

Elizabeth Webber

&
Mike Feinsilber

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
Springfield, Massachusetts

A GENUINE MERRIAM-WEBSTER
The name Webster alone is no guarantee of excellence. It is used by
a number of publishers and may serve mainly to mislead an unwary
buyer.

Merriam-Webster™ is the name you should look for when you con-
sider the purchase of dictionaries and other fine reference books.
It carries the reputation of a company that has been publishing
since 1831 and is your assurance of quality and authority.

Copyright © 1999 by Elizabeth Webber & Mike Feinsilber

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Webber, Elizabeth, 1946-
Merriam-Webster's dictionary of allusions / by
Elizabeth Webber & Mike Feinsilber.
p.
cm.
ISBN 0-87779-628-9
1. Allusions in literature — Dictionaries. I. Feinsilber, Mike.
II. Title.
III. Title: Dictionary of allusions.
PN43.W384
1999
803—dc21
99-33125
CIP

All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by the copyrights
hereon may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means-
graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, or
information storage and retrieval systems—without written permission
of the publisher.

Made in the United States of America

1234DF:QPV02010099

To

Betty Webber
E.W.

Doris Feinsilber
M.F.

cfcnoïvledgments

This book would not have come about without the encouragement
and support of Daniel Rapoport, the midwifery of Paul Dickson, and
the knowledge, resources and skill of Merriam-Webster Inc., especially
Frederick C. Mish who provided initial guidance on the scope of the
book, Mary W. Cornog and E. Ward Gilman for their research and
editing help, Jennifer N. Cislo for data input of new material, Kath-
leen M. Doherty, Daniel J. Hopkins, and Robert D. Copeland for proof-
reading of the manuscript, and publisher John M. Morse for his
guidance and editorial suggestions all along the way. We would
also like to thank the gods and goddesses, the beasts both real and
mythic, the prophets, poets, kings and clowns—and the ink-stained
wretches—who provided the fodder for this work.

ft

reface

The legendary editor Harold Ross, founder of The New Yorker, is
said to have once expressed plaintive bewilderment to his magazine's
star writer, James Thurber: "Is Moby Dick the man or the whale?"
This book is for people like Ross.
Like him, we're not so dumb, we readers, but we don't know every-
thing about everything. We might know what's flotsam and what's jet-
sam, but not what manner of mammal was Moby Dick. This book will
help.
All of us run into (and sometimes use) these sideways references
that are intended to add color and vigor to language. But they are lost
on us if we have forgotten or never knew what they mean. We could
stop reading and hope to find it in a dictionary. More likely, we just
make a guess from context and read on in a fog.
This book is a collection of those tricky allusions that appear with-
out accompanying explanations in our daily reading. When your dic-
tionary can't help with silent spring, the Dreyfus affair, lounge lizard or
the artful dodger, turn to these pages. Our collection isn't exhaustive,
but it aims to cover much of what an active reader will encounter.
The terms come from literature, sports, mythology, Wall Street, his-
tory, headlines, Shakespeare, politics, science, standup comics and the
Sunday comics, and venues from the locker room to the board room.
We've tried to convey solid information without being stuffy about
it. We show how these terms are used, with examples from magazines,
newspapers, books and the odd bit from radio or film. And even if
you are familiar with an expression, you are likely to be delighted with
the artful, eloquent or humorous uses in our examples.
Oh: the whale was Moby Dick. The man was Captain Ahab. And
Ishmael was the narrator, who lived to tell the tale.

Elizabeth Webber
Mike Feinsilber

TTonunciation Symbols

d . . .. anoint, collide, data
*d, ,9 cut, conundrum
8 . . . . immediately preceding
\1\, \n\, \m\, \n\, as in
battle, mitten, eaten, and
sometimes open \'ô-p3n\,
lock and key \-n\;
immediately following
\ 1 \ , \m\, \r\, as often in
French table, prisme,
titre
a .. . . rap, cat, sand, lamb
à . .. . way, paid, late, eight
a . . . . opt, cod, mach
à . . . . French chat, table
ar . . . air, care, laird
au .. . out, loud, tout, cow
b . . .. bat, able, rib
ch . . . chair, reach, catcher
d . . . . day, red, ladder
e . . . . egg, bed, bet
'ë, ,ë eat, reed, fleet, pea
ê . . . . penny, genie
ei. .. . Dutch eieren, dijk
f . . . . fine, chaff, office
g
gate, rag, eagle
h . . . . hot, ahoy
hw. . . wheat, when
i
ill, hip, bid
ï
aisle, fry, white, wide
j
jump, fudge, budget
k . . . . kick, baker, scam, ask
k .. . . loch, Bach, German Buch
1
lap, pal, alley
m . .. make, jam, hammer
n . . . . now, win, banner
n . .. . shows that a preceding
vowel is nasalized, as in
French en \an\
n . . . . ring, singer, gong

Ô . .

Ô . .
œ .

œ .

ôi..
ôr .
P- •
r . .
s . .
sh .
t ..
th .
th .
û. .
ù. .

U3. .

Û3. .

V . .

W . .
y . .
y

z . .
zh .
\ V

1

- ..

.. oak, boat, toe, go
.. hawk, bawl, caught, ought
.. French neuf, German
Kôpfe
. . French deux, German
Lohne
.. oyster, toy, foil
. . core, born, oar
.. pet, tip, upper
.. rut, tar, error, cart
.. sink, bass, lasso
.. shin, lash, pressure
. . top, pat, later
. . third, bath, Kathy
. . this, other, bathe
. . ooze, blue, noon
.. wool, took, should
.. German Bùnde, fûllen
.. German kuhl, French vue
.. veer, rove, ever
.. well, awash
.. youth, yet, lawyer
. . shows palatalization of a
preceding consonant, as
in French campagne
\kân-'pàny\
. . zoo, haze, razor
.. pleasure, decision
. . reversed virgules used to
mark the beginning and
end of a phonetic
respelling
mark preceding a syllable
with primary stress: boa
Vbô-9\
mark preceding a syllable
with secondary stress:
beeline Vbë-,lïn\
. . mark indicating syllable
divisions

2L
Abelard and Héloïse Va-ba-làrd... •a-la-.wëz, 'e-l9-\ Tragically romantic
lovers. Peter Abelard, a great scholar and teacher in France in the Mid-
dle Ages, became infatuated with Héloïse, the beautiful, intelligent young
niece of Fulbert, canon of Notre Dame. Abelard talked himself into a job
as her tutor and seduced her. The two fell deeply in love, and in time
Héloïse discovered she was pregnant.
Héloïse was packed off to the country to have the baby, after which
she and Abelard were married in secret (although Héloïse thought mar-
riage and philosophy were not compatible). Abelard's in-laws were not
happy and arranged for ruffians to attack and castrate him. Héloïse was
sent tô a convent and eventually became a nun and an abbess, and Abelard
became a monk.
Héloïse was one of the most literate women of her day, and her duties
as an administrator gave her a successful career as a nun and abbess.
Abelard, though brilliant, was a maverick, and his writings were frequently
denounced and sometimes burned.
After their separation, he and Héloïse corresponded through letters of
love and suffering, which they later collected and published. They are said
to have been buried together; they were reburied in the famous cemetery
of Pere LaChaise in Paris in 1817. (Jim Morrison of the Doors was there,
too, but his body was recently removed because of the damage tourists
visiting it had done to other graves. Abelard and Héloïse do not have as
many 20th century fans.)
The term in use, by R.Z. Sheppard, Time, May 22, 1995, reviewing
Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novel Love and Other Demons:

Cayetano is sent as an exorcist, but after one look at the girl's
blue eyes and cascading copper hair, all that gets exorcised is his
own inhibition. A Latin American Abelard and Héloïse? Not
quite.

Another example, also from Time, by Nancy Gibbs, April 3, 1995:

Penn thus becomes the latest school to turn itself inside out over
an issue that dates back to Abelard and Héloïse. Through the
years so many professors have romanced and often married their
students that it seems a quaint, even hypocritical exercise to sud-
denly try to stop them.

. . . in theory the [independent counsel's] task is
nothing less than to cleanse the Augean stables of sin and
corruption and restore the national
innocence....
—Gene Lyons

Achilles' heel
2

Achilles' heel \3-'ki-lêz\ A vulnerable point.
In Greek mythology, the hero Achilles was invulnerable to mortal
wounds because his mother, Thetis, had dipped him as an infant into the
magical waters of the River STYX, which flows around Hades, the under-
world. But she held baby Achilles by the heel, and, inevitably, in the war
against Troy, Achilles was killed by an arrow which struck him in that
one vulnerable spot.
Achilles also gave us his tendon, which joins the calf muscle to the heel
bone, and the Achilles reflex, prompted by a sharp tap on the Achilles
tendon.
The term in use, by Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, commander of U.S.
forces in Bosnia, quoted by Rick Atkinson in the Washington Post, April
14, 1996:

If my Achilles' heel is the low tolerance of the American people
for casualties, then I have to recognize that my success or fail-
ure in this mission is directly affected by that.

Another example, from Peter H. Lewis in the New York Times, March
21, 1989:

The key to a fax machine's power, and also its Achilles' heel, is
that it works over regular telephone lines. Any boor with a fax
machine and your phone number can deluge you with unwanted
documents.

And from Rick Wartzman, the Wall Street Journal, July 24, 1989:

Some think it's the DC-10's Achilles' heel: a cluster of hydraulic
lines that, if cut, can send the plane plummeting.

Acton, Lord Originator of the maxim, "Power tends to corrupt, and
absolute power corrupts absolutely." (George Bernard Shaw's view, as
reported in Days with Bernard Shaw by Stephen Winsten, was: "Power
does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power,
corrupt power.") A brilliant and quotable Victorian, Acton's full name
was John Emerich Edward Dalberg, and he lived in the last two-thirds of
the 19th century. As a Roman Catholic, he couldn't attend Cambridge
University but later was appointed a professor in modern history there.
A friend of de Tocqueville and other prominent intellectuals of his day
and celebrated as one of the most learned men of his age, Acton was an
ardent Liberal and a close friend of Gladstone. (See GLADSTONIAN.)
In addition to his observation on the corrupting nature of power, this
comment on secrecy is attributed to him: "Everything secret degenerates;
nothing is safe that does not bear discussion and publicity."
His lordship evoked, by Elizabeth Janeway in her review of Jonathan
Yardley's Our Kind of People in the New York Times Book Review, March
19, 1989:

3
Adonis

The WASP group (and I speak from experience since my own
kind of people are much like Mr. Yardley's) has combined the
comfort of belonging with long dominance of American power
and culture. This assumed entitlement naturally infuriates many
people. It also complicates its members' lives and visions: reali-
ty itself, not mere wishful thinking, has seemed to confirm the
rightness of their beliefs and behavior. Here, I suspect, lies the
root of that corruption by established power which Lord Acton,
a White Anglo-Saxon Catholic, told us humans to fear.

And by columnist Suzanne Fields in the Washington Times, April 20,
1997, on the character of Vice President Albert Gore:

Bland ambition quickly becomes blind ambition. To paraphrase
Lord Acton: Blind ambition corrupts blindly and absolute blind-
ness corrupts absolutely. It's possible that Al Gore, who begins
to see the presidency through a glass darkly, can no longer make
distinctions between personal integrity and MACHIAVELLIAN
strategies of a politician. [See SEE THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY.]

Another example, from Charles Paul Freund in his column "Rhetori-
cal Questions" in the Washington Post, April 11, 1989:
Never mind Lord Acton; in Washington, power homogenizes.
Look at Newt Gingrich.
Adonis A figure in Greek mythology, so handsome that his name is a
metaphor for youthful male beauty.
And like most characters in Greek mythology, his family background
was complicated, and his love life was, well, messy. He was the product
of the incestuous union of Cinyras, king of Cyprus, and his daughter. He
grew up to be beautifully handsome, and Aphrodite, goddess of love, fell
in love with him. Beng loved by a goddess was hazardous, however, and
Adonis was killed while boarhunting (the boar was reputed to be the jeal-
ous war god Ares in disguise). In one version of the story, Zeus arranged
for Adonis to spend part of the year with Aphrodite and part with Perse-
phone, queen of the underworld, whose eye he had also caught. This cus-
tody arrangement explained the cycle of the seasons.
The term in use, by Brad Hooper in Booklist, May 1, 1991, reviewing
Paradise by Judith McNaught:
When young, Meredith Bancroft was burned in love. A poor lit-
tle rich girl, the daughter of the owner of a famous department
store, she fell for a hometown Adonis who wasn't interested.
Then she met Matthew, a mechanic putting himself through
school. They had a brief, sour marriage.

And by Ron Fimrite in Sports Illustrated, March 18, 1991:

Most players at that time wore at least rudimentary helmets, but
not Hobey, who considered headgear too confining. Although