SAT/Allusion

Philistines/Philistinism

Old testament, enemies of Israelistes, david giant philistine warrior, goliath

No appreciation for culture and whose tastes are commonplace

Faust/Faustian Bargain

Plays by Christopher Marlone CDR Faustus, Goethe faust, Mephistopheles, sells his soul, having everything he desires, despair

Sacrificing one’s self or one’s value in exchange for getting what one desires, often material wealth

Coals to Newcastle

Coal-mining city in England, superfluous

Giving superfluous gift or making a contribution that is gratutious and unnecessary

Freduian slip

Sigmund Fund, austrian physician and psychoterapist, subconsciout mind in human behavior

Unintentional or accidental error, either in speech or action that apparently reveals one’s subconscious thoughts or desires

Sisphus/sisyphean

Greek myth, kind who offended zeus, hades, rolling a gian boulder up a hill, roll back down to the bottom, start his task

endless, perhaps futile taskor labor that is ultimately unachievable.

Methusela

oldest of the patriachs in the Bible 969 years old

Extremely old person

Scylla and Charybdis

Greek myth, many headed-sea monster, cave on one side of a narrow strait, steer their ships very carefully between the two

Caught between two equal dangers in which avoiding one means getting closer to the other

Holy grail

Medival legend, object of quest, cup from which Jesus drank at the last supper, legends of king arthur and knights of the round table, perfection

Extremely desireable or valuable

Luddites

British laborers in the early 1800s, opposed industrialization threaten their jobs, smashed textile machinery

Someone who opposes change, especially industrial or technological advances

Past the Buck

In poker, marker that was passed to the person whose turn it was to deal, Harry Truman

Shift responsibility and often blame to another person

Babylon

Capital of ancient bablorrian empire, luxury luery and corruption, jews were exiled, and prophet daniel

Place of decadence and corruption

Phoenix

Mythical bird, one of a kind, five or six hundred years, burn itself to death and then rise from its own ashes

Symbolize rebirth or resurrection and rising from own ashes

Xanadu

Mongolia, mongol emperor of china, kubla; khan, magnificient residence, poem “Kublakhar”(1816), by Samuel Taylor Colderidge

Magnificent and beauty; idealized place

Muckrakers

President Roosevelt, reform-minded journalists, muckrakers badge of honor, exposed corruption or promoted needed reforms

Term applied to authors or journalists who exposed corruption in government, business, or other areas

Sine qua hon

Latin, “Without which, nothing”

Essential ingredient without which an endeavor or a situation would be impossible

Marauder

Raider; intruder

Emit

to send or give out; to express, utter; to put in a circulation as money

umbrage

sense of injury or insult; to take offense, displeasure

abdominate

extreme hatred;loathing; something despised

rivet

something that fastens two parts together; also to hold the attention of

rudimentary

basic, crude, undeveloped; fundamental principles or skills

Abridge

to shorten, to condense; to diminish; to curtail

Fester

to generate or to become a source or resentment or irritation

entomb

to place in or as if in a tomb, or a grave