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Nov 13, 2009
This week's themeWords related to horses This week's words horse-and-buggy horse latitudes stalking horse hobbyhorse Trojan horse Trojan horse
Trojan Horse from the movie Troy, now preserved in Çanakkale, Turkey
Photo: Ross Burgess
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with Anu GargTrojan horse
PRONUNCIATION:
(TRO-juhn hors)
MEANING:
noun:
Something or someone placed in order to subvert from within.
ETYMOLOGY:
In the legendary Trojan War, the Greeks left a large hollow wooden horse at the
gates of the city of Troy. The Trojans took it inside. Greek soldiers hidden
in the horse came out at night and opened the gates of the city, allowing
the Greek army to enter and conquer the Trojans. In computing, a Trojan
horse is a program that, while seemingly useful, steals passwords or does
other damage to computers.
USAGE:
"Ministers appear determined to use the Coroners and Justice Bill
as a Trojan horse with which to smuggle authoritarian measures
on to the statute book."Resist These Attempts to Make Justice Secret; The Independent (London, UK); Oct 22, 2009. See more usage examples of Trojan horse in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Literature becomes the living memory of a nation. -Alexander Solzhenitsyn, novelist, Nobel laureate (1918-2008)
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