This week’s theme
Words coined after mountains and hills

This week’s words
Olympian
balkanize
Areopagus
Everest
Pelion


This week’s comments
AWADmail 927

Next week’s theme
Eponyms

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A.Word.A.Day

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.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: