BATRACHOMYOMACHY
Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 5:04 pm
• batrachomyomachy •
Pronunciation: bæ-trê-kê-mai-om-ê-ki • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun, mass
Meaning: A tempest in a teacup, a mountain made of a molehill, making a federal case of a minor issue.
Notes: Appropriately enough, this word that means making a mountain out of a molehill is a mountain of a mouthful expressing a mouse of a meaning. If you are brave enough to toss this one into a conversation, you might as well know the adjective and agent noun. You may be the first to ever use this adjective: batrachomyomachian [bæ-trê-kê-mai-o-may-ki-ên]. If you tend to exaggerate the importance of things, you are a batrachomyomachist [bæ-trê-kê-mai-om-ê-kist].
In Play: Disputes over trivia occur far too often: "April Showers is raising another batrachomyomachy over what people are saying about her around the water cooler." Those willing to wait for you to finish uttering today's 7-syllable word may be less common. "I don't understand this whole batrachomyomachy over who gets Mona's parking place now that she's gone."
Word History: Today's Good if rather long Word is a Greek word meaning "The Battle of Frogs and Mice". It is the title of a mock-heroic epic poem about the struggle around between frogs and mice by a small pond described in the same terms as the siege of Troy is described in the Odyssey. The Greek word comes from batrachos "frog," mys "mouse," and machia "fighting", a word related to English might, machine, and magic. Mys is the of the same origin as Latin mus, whose diminutive, musculus "a little mouse", turned into French muscle whence it made its way to English. (Did you know that lifting weights can make you, etymologically speaking, mousy?)
Pronunciation: bæ-trê-kê-mai-om-ê-ki • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun, mass
Meaning: A tempest in a teacup, a mountain made of a molehill, making a federal case of a minor issue.
Notes: Appropriately enough, this word that means making a mountain out of a molehill is a mountain of a mouthful expressing a mouse of a meaning. If you are brave enough to toss this one into a conversation, you might as well know the adjective and agent noun. You may be the first to ever use this adjective: batrachomyomachian [bæ-trê-kê-mai-o-may-ki-ên]. If you tend to exaggerate the importance of things, you are a batrachomyomachist [bæ-trê-kê-mai-om-ê-kist].
In Play: Disputes over trivia occur far too often: "April Showers is raising another batrachomyomachy over what people are saying about her around the water cooler." Those willing to wait for you to finish uttering today's 7-syllable word may be less common. "I don't understand this whole batrachomyomachy over who gets Mona's parking place now that she's gone."
Word History: Today's Good if rather long Word is a Greek word meaning "The Battle of Frogs and Mice". It is the title of a mock-heroic epic poem about the struggle around between frogs and mice by a small pond described in the same terms as the siege of Troy is described in the Odyssey. The Greek word comes from batrachos "frog," mys "mouse," and machia "fighting", a word related to English might, machine, and magic. Mys is the of the same origin as Latin mus, whose diminutive, musculus "a little mouse", turned into French muscle whence it made its way to English. (Did you know that lifting weights can make you, etymologically speaking, mousy?)