Make Your Point > Archived Issues > DAMOCLEAN

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pronounce DAMOCLEAN: Say it "DAM uh KLEE un." To hear it, click here. connect this word to others: (Thanks for the comic, xkcd!) When you think about how dangerous it is to drive, you realize that sitting in a moving car is sitting under a sword of Damocles. At any moment, injury or even death could be i____ent (very likely, or unavoidable). Could you recall that word? (To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.) definition: Damocles (below, the guy sitting down) is a character from myth and fable. His name is pronounced "DAM uh kleeze." He's the one who wanted to trade places with a king: he wanted the feasts, the riches, and the servants. Although he got his wish, he had to sit directly underneath a sword hanging up by a tiny hair, fearing for his life every moment. The sword symbolized the constant dread that the real king had to experience, since plenty of people were just waiting for the chance to murder him. You can read the whole story here (it's super-short). At the end, Damocles explains the moral: "I now see that I was mistaken, and that the rich and powerful are not so happy as they seem. Let me go back to my old home in the poor little cottage among the mountains." Today, we might refer to a thing or a situation as a "sword of Damocles" or "a Damoclean sword" if we mean it's extremely dangerous and ever-present, able to hurt us or kill us at any moment. grammatical bits: Part of speech: Adjective, the proper kind, so you always capitalize it: "a Damoclean nightmare." Other forms:  "Damocles," "sword of Damocles," "Damoclean sword" how to use it: First things first: is the rare word "Damoclean" too fancy or too snobby for everyday conversation? It depends. I'd say, if you're in a situation where you're comfortable talking about your Achilles' heel or your Herculean labors, then it's probably just fine to mention your Damoclean sword (or your sword of Damocles). You might talk about a Damoclean sword hanging over you or threatening you: "As the executives were selecting dozens of people to fire, I sweated under a Damoclean sword." That Damoclean sword can drop or descend when the disaster actually hits: "He drove for years without insurance, and today he got pulled over and had his license revoked... that Damoclean sword finally dropped on him."  Feel free to get silly, sarcastic, or dramatic: "Our daughter is dancing around the white sofa with melted chocolate all over her fingers. It's a real Damoclean sword." examples: "Could $39,999 be a fair deal for the car as it's presented—with the supposition of no Damoclean Sword hanging over it? Or, is there something about the car that we're not being told, and hence we're not buying that price?"    — Rob Emslie, Jalopnik, 4 June 2019 "Commoner Defies Damoclean Sword: Washington University's noted Center for the Biology of Natural Systems has survived a cliff-hanging week in which it was sentenced to death by the university administration only to be reprieved 5 days later, with its director, ecologist Barry Commoner, given a new appointment... Commoner was told by the administration last November that the Center would have to vacate its space...but Commoner is said to have refused unless he got equivalent space elsewhere."    — Philip M. Boffey, Science, 1976 has this page helped you understand "Damoclean"? Awesome, I'm glad it helped! Thanks for letting me know! If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. study it: Explain the meaning of "Damoclean" without saying "looming" or "overhanging." try it out: In my early twenties, I went for several years with no health insurance. Very risky! Very Damoclean! Luckily, I didn't get sick. Phew. Talk about a Damoclean situation you've found yourself in. Did you escape unharmed? If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.) before you review, play: Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out. Our game for January is "Find the Missing Link." In each chain of words, find the one that's missing from the middle. This missing link, according to a thesaurus, is a synonym of each word on its left and right. But as you'll see, the words on the left and right are most definitely not synonyms!  For example, if I give you "special → _____ → typical," then you answer, "peculiar," because sometimes "peculiar" means "special, different, odd," but other times it means "typical of this, specific to this, distinctively this."  To see the answer, scroll all the way down. Your answer might be different from mine but just as good. Enjoy! Try this one today: triumph → _____ → buzz review this word: 1. A near opposite of DAMOCLEAN is A. SAFE. B. LUCKY. C. BEAUTIFUL. 2. In California, according to the L.A. Times, "utilities can be held responsible for fires ignited by their equipment," even if those utilities have kept that equipment in good repair. "It's a sword of Damocles _____ anyone who owns a piece of the power grid," the Times comments. A. tripping up B. confronting C. hanging over Answers to review questions: 1. A 2. C Answer to the game question: triumph → elation → buzz. a final word: I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog:    36 ways to study words.    Why we forget words, & how to remember them.    How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.