Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Tuesday Word Bytes; Mmmm, Mmmm, Mmmm!

I LOVE words!  I think language is the best part of being a human.  There's nothing as good as taking a new word and rolling it around the inside of my mouth and feeling how it tastes.

Todays word;

Dulcarnon (dull-car-non)
From the Arabic;  dhū 'l karnein, meaning "lord of the two horns,"

It was an appellation given to Alexander the Great, who claimed to be the son of Amon, an Egyptian God, depicted with rams horns.





It's also attributed to Euclid, in describing the Pythagorean Theory.



Now, it's interesting that the definition of the word Dulcarnon makes it a noun; a person who finds himself unable to make a decision.

The first anecdote I thought of was... "on the horns of a dilemma", but that's not what Dulcarnon means.

To be on the horns of dilemma signifies not being able to choose between really bad options.

To be a Dulcarnon is to not be able to choose between two things, good or bad.


So, you can see that it's a natural assumption, the whole "horns" thing!

What's your favorite word this week?

1 comment:

Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina said...

I don't know. Can't decide.
xxoo, ybf