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Apr 3, 2020
This week’s themeWords coined after mountains and hills
This week’s words
Olympian
balkanize
Areopagus
Everest
Pelion
Photo: Heidi B / Wikimedia
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargPelion
PRONUNCIATION:
(PEE-lee-uhn) 
MEANING:
noun: A huge or difficult task.
ETYMOLOGY:
After Mount Pelion, a mountain in Greece. Earliest documented use: 1560.
NOTES:
In Greek mythology, the twins Otus and Ephialtes piled Mount Pelion on Mount Ossa and both on Mount Olympus in an attempt to reach heaven and attack the gods. The word is mainly used in the idiom “to pile Pelion upon Ossa” meaning to make a challenging task even more difficult by piling something on top of it.
USAGE:
“But children nowadays are subjected to new habit-forming pressures that pile Pelion on their Ossa.”
Theodore Dalrymple; I Blame the Parents; The Spectator (London, UK); Mar 21, 2015.
Theodore Dalrymple; I Blame the Parents; The Spectator (London, UK); Mar 21, 2015.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds -- all they have had, all they have now, and all they expect to have. -Edward Everett Hale, author (3 Apr 1822-1909)
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