Etymology Chase

ETYMOLOGY CHASE: If internet use goes with definition, word is in green. If not, it is in red.

Labyrinth: (my definition) A maze or enigma; a puzzle.
Internet Use: "Treated for Illness, Then Lost in Labyrinth of Bills." That is the name of the article. The article is about a woman who suffers from a type of cancer but at a point considered stopping treatment because the treatment required so much paperwork. She was lost in bills and paperwork which basically does go with my definition.

Palladium: (dictionary definition) A safeguard, especially one viewed as a guarantee of the integrity of social institutions.
Internet Use: "Microsoft recently announced Palladium, a plan for creating secure computing platforms." Since the plan is for creating secure computin platforms, it goes with the definition of safeguard.

Museum: (my definition) Place where historic articles or pieces of art are kept and displayed to the public.
Internet Use: "Jacques Chirac created a museum devoted to African, Asian, Oceanic and pre-Columbian art at Quai Branly beside the Eiffel Tower." This says that the museum is devoted to the art of those different places, so it matches my definition.

Narcissism: (my definition) To be in love with one's self.
Internet Use: "That doesn’t make him any different from any other bubble boy with a fat paycheck and the slavish attention of a media that mocks his narcissism by publishing articles about his narcissism." This is talking about a movie director in an article about the film "Lady in the Water." This sort of does go with my definition because it talks about how the media makes fun of how he displays himself in movies. It doesn't directly say that the director is in love with himself, but the article is making the point that he puts a lot of himself in his films, and thus by portraying himself, it kind of goes with my definition.

Odyssey: (my definition) A long journey containing many obstacles; an adventure.
Internet Use: "A Fly-Fisherman’s Odyssey" That is the name of the article in which a fisherman goes fishing in the streams where Homer's nymphs were supposed to be. It is about how he doesn't find fish in one river so he heads to another and so forth. It was an adventure for him, and thus it goes perfectly with my definition of the word.

Meander: (my definition) Wandering around in search for something.
Internet Use: "A newly created 25,668-acre nature preserve along the Little Pee Dee River in South Carolina allows visitors to meander among spooky trees and chilly black water." In an article about South Carolina touring, the word meander, by the context, seems like it means to walk around/wander. It doesn't necessarily specify to look for something, but I hit it right in the wandering part.

Protean: (my definition) Heroic; adventurous
Internet Use: "But it has a formal freedom unprecedented in Johnson's public works, as if he has found an esthetic sufficiently protean to express his promiscuous love of shapes." By the context, I can't really tell what protean means, but it doesn't look like it means heroic or adventurous.
Actual Meaning: Readily assuming different forms or characters; extremely variable;
changeable in shape or form, as an amoeba. This definition goes with the context perfectly, and I understand how the author used it.

Stoical: (my definition) Showing no emotion; plain
Internet Use: "More and more, the shrewdest thinkers and artists are precocious archeologists of ... ruins-in-the-making, indignant or stoical diagnosticians of defeat, enigmatic choreographers of the complex spiritual movements useful for individual survival in an era or permanent apocalypse." Although this sentence doesn't really show the definition by the context, it could be what it means, and the dictionary defines stoical very similarly to what I defined it as.

Herculean: (my definition) Heroic; strong or capable.
Internet Use: "I don’t think anybody can say I haven’t made a Herculean effort," Selig said. Using the context, I beleive this could mean strong, and thus my definition is correct or close to what it is.

Laconic: (my definition) Using few words; brief
Internet Use: "Mr. Scott, slender and 6-foot-2, was as laconic off screen as he was in his westerns. ''Frankly, I don't like publicity,'' he said in a 1961 interview." This goes with my definition because he uses few words in the quote.

Zephyr: (my definition) A precious blue rock.
Internet Use: All articles in the New York Times that I could find didn't have Zephyr in the context of my definition. All the articles I found used Zephyr as a proper name.
Actual Definition: a gentle, mild breeze; (initial capital letter) Literary. the west wind.
any of various things of fine, light quality, as fabric, yarn, etc.

Nemesis: (my definition) Big enemy; opposite equal.
Internet Use: "A Nemesis of Matsuzaka May Intrigue the Yankees" This is the name of an article that talks about a first baseman that did exceptionally well against Daisuke Matsuzaka, a pitcher of the Boston Red Sox. The player is someone who does good against Matsuzaka, and is thus his rival or opposite equal.

Flora: (my definition) Plant life; trees, flowers, plants, etc.
Internet Use: "As the couple, who have an 11-year-old daughter, set out to remodel the bigger house, Ms. Russo hired a garden designer to help her identify the tangle of flora that grew around the houses and along a steep hillside." In the context, the word flora probably means plants, or bushes or something of the sort.

Ambrosia: (my definition) A type of plant; herb
Internet Use: "He often ordered two or three gin martinis first, so he was well oiled by the time the food came, and I always ordered the same thing: shrimp rémoulade, chicken Rochambeau and ambrosia." I believe this does match my definition because it is being used as a food, and an herb is eatable. While it probably is not the exact definition, I probably have something close.

Hermetic: (my definition) Temperature isolated.
Internet Use: "A hermetic seal is the main reason the Kim dynasty has survived so long. When I arrived at Pyongyang airport, I was obliged to hand over my cellphones and satellite phones, to be picked up on my departure. Even many senior government officials have no access to the Internet." This matches my definition in the isolated part. The context has nothing to do with temperature, but it is saying that North Korea is isolated from the world.

Promethean: (my definition) Someone who starts something; innovative.
Internet Use: "The audience needs to be told what operations of accident, fate and Promethean technological hubris caused a given mild-mannered misfit to acquire his monstrous and misunderstood gifts." In this context the word Promethean most probably means innovative or new.

Nectar: (my definition) The liquid that comes out of a flower; some type of juice.
Internet Use: "Now, in a mystery worthy of Agatha Christie, bees are flying off in search of pollen and nectar and simply never returning to their colonies." Bees eat the liquid that comes out of flowers, and that is called nectar as we cann see in this article.

Sibylline: (dictionary definition) Of, resembling, or characteristic of a sibyl; prophetic; oracular; mysterious or cryptic.
Internet Use: "Like many of the sibylline messages of mythology, these kinetic tidings were hauntingly mysterious." This matches the definition because it uses mysterious and talks about mythology, the two basic components that make up the definition of the word.

Tantalize: (my definition) To torture or tease.
Internet Use: "Photos of a Saturn Moon Both Tantalize and Confuse" This is the title of an article that talks about Saturn's Moon, Titan. Scientists are confused because of its appearence and are tantalized thinking there is life. Thus, they are being teased somewhat by what they see.

Delphic: (dictionary definition) Of or pertaining to Delphi. Of or pertaining to Apollo, or to his temples or oracles. (often lowercase) Oracular; obscure; ambiguous
Internet Use: " In short, he was Delphic, and his supporters and critics each ended the day saying his performance had hardened their enthusiasm or their doubts." I believe this matches the definition because it could be pertaining to the fact that he was ambigious or obscure.

Halycon: (dictionary definition) NOT FOUND...

Platonic: (my definition) Something that is very hard to accomplish; impossible
Internet Use: " Their friendship, however, seemed strengthened by remaining platonic." By the context of this sentence, it appears my definition is wrong.
Actual Definition: Purely spiritual; free from sensual desire, esp. in a relationship between two persons of the opposite sex.

Draconian: (my definition) Devilish or mean; also someone who is a very hard worker.
Internet Use: "The folks at MOFTB can be a bit draconian sometimes but they’re no dummies." In this sentence, the context tells us that draconian means either evil, mean, or any other word of that sort.

Calypso: (dictionary definition) A musical style of West Indian origin, influenced by jazz, usually having topical, often improvised, lyrics. To sing or dance to calypso.
Internet Use: "POP MUSIC; In Trinidad, 'Calypso Diplomacy' With a Beat" This is the title of an article about Trinidad. Since it uses Calypso and music in the same sentence, the definition must be correct.

Up to this point, all definitions are from the dictionary because my group and I didn't have enough time to get definitions for the rest of the words.

Amazon: A river in N South America, flowing E from the Peruvian Andes through N Brazil to the Atlantic Ocean: the largest river in the world in volume of water carried. 3900 mi. (6280 km) long.
Classical Mythology. one of a race of female warriors said to dwell near the Black Sea.
One of a fabled tribe of female warriors in South America.
A tall, powerful, aggressive woman.
Internet Use: "Most forests in the Amazon River basin grew greener in 2005 even as a potent drought caused the waterways in the region to shrivel to a 100-year low, scientists said in a paper published in the online journal ScienceExpress."

Siren: A seductively beautiful or charming woman, esp. one who beguiles men: a siren of the silver screen.
An acoustical instrument for producing musical tones, consisting essentially of a disk pierced with holes arranged equidistantly in a circle, rotated over a jet or stream of compressed air, steam, or the like, so that the stream is alternately interrupted and allowed to pass.
An implement of this kind used as a whistle, fog signal, or warning device.
Internet Use: "The Siren Song of Mali"

Mercurial: Changeable; volatile; fickle; flighty; erratic: a mercurial nature.
Animated; lively; sprightly; quick-witted.
Pertaining to, containing, or caused by the metal mercury.
Of or pertaining to the planet Mercury.
Internet Use: "Barry Bonds, the mercurial and sometimes temperamental Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder, admitted today that he unwittingly rubs many people the wrong way."

Procrustean: Tending to produce conformity by violent or arbitrary means.
Internet Use: "I am struck dumb (well, almost) by Carolyn Heilbrun's attempt to force not only ''Richard III'' but all of Shakespeare into her Procrustean bed of good women/evil men."

Aurora: Meteorology. a radiant emission from the upper atmosphere that occurs sporadically over the middle and high latitudes of both hemispheres in the form of luminous bands, streamers, or the like, caused by the bombardment of the atmosphere with charged solar particles that are being guided along the earth's magnetic lines of force.
Internet Use: "Invasive cane toads on the move, the far-flung impacts of El Niño, auroras on Mars and the lingering effects of arsenic."

Iridescent: Displaying a play of lustrous colors like those of the rainbow. –noun. An iridescent cloth, material, or other substance
Internet Use: "His ties have been dipped in colors unknown in these parts: iridescent violet, gold, peacock blue."

Panacea: A remedy for all disease or ills; cure-all. An answer or solution for all problems or difficulties.
Internet Use: "Few Expect a Panacea in a Rate Cut by the Fed"

Lethargy: (my definition) Laziness
Internet Use: "When Peter blackmails Senator Stiles to secure a House seat, Tim rouses himself from his lethargy to fight Peter politically."

Gorgons: A woman regarded as ugly or terrifying.
Internet Use: "Where snake-coiffed gorgons present themselves to wary hairdressers."

Harpies: A scolding, nagging, bad-tempered woman; shrew. A greedy, predatory person.
Internet Use: "Under Robert B. Sinclair's able direction, some excellent actresses give stingingly detailed pictures of some of the most odious harpies ever collected in one play"

Hydra: A persistent or many-sided problem that presents new obstacles as soon as one aspect is solved.
Internet Use: "The New York Waterway group is planning to buy a modern model, known as a Hydra-Terra, that is manufactured near Rochester, holds 45 passengers and costs about $200,000. "

Lycanthrope: A person affected with lycanthropy. A werewolf or alien spirit in the physical form of a bloodthirsty wolf.
Internet Use: "The son of fortune teller Maleva (Maria Ouspenskaya), Bela was a lycanthrope, or 'wolf man.' "

Martial: Inclined or disposed to war; warlike. Of, suitable for, or associated with war or the armed forces. Characteristic of or befitting a warrior.
Internet Use: "But “The Jaded Assassin,” Michael Voyer’s innovative martial-arts fantasy, is all about the battles."

Sophistry: A subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning. A false argument; sophism.
Internet Use: "With more sophistry than poetry, Oliver Stone apotheosizes these trash archetypes in "Natural Born Killers," his supposed satire about an America despoiled by violence and exploitation."

Fauna: The animals of a given region or period considered as a whole. A treatise on the animals of a given region or period.
Internet Use: "On Madagascar, a Treasury of Fauna and Flora"

Stentorian: Very loud or powerful in sound.
Internet Use: "As a curator, Mr. Szarkowski loomed large, with a stentorian voice and a raconteurial style."

Pyrrhic: Of or relating to a war dance of ancient Greece; of or relating to or containing a metrical foot of two unstressed syllables; of or relating to or resembling Pyrrhus or his exploits (especially his sustaining staggering losses in order to defeat the Romans). A metrical unit with unstressed-unstressed syllables; an ancient Greek dance imitating the motions of warfare.
Internet Use: "MOMA's Pyrrhic Victory"

Victory: A success or triumph over an enemy in battle or war. An engagement ending in such triumph; the ultimate and decisive superiority in any battle or contest; a success or superior position achieved against any opponent, opposition, difficulty, etc.
Internet Use: " 'This is a spectacular victory for Microsoft,'' said David Yoffie, a professor at the Harvard Business School."

Gordian Knot: Pertaining to Gordius, ancient king of Phrygia, who tied a knot (the Gordian knot) that, according to prophecy, was to be undone only by the person who was to rule Asia, and that was cut, rather than untied, by Alexander the Great; resembling the Gordian knot in intricacy.
Internet Use: "I think members of my team listened to the president but did not hear him. And today I have cut the Gordian knot, however difficult it may be.' "

Pandora's Box: A source of extensive but unforeseen troubles or problems.
Internet Use: "Research on Embryos Opens a Pandora's Box"

Cassandra: A person who prophesies doom or disaster.
Internet Use: "You don't have to be a Cassandra to fear for the New York Times"

Sword of Damocles: An impending disaster.
Internet Use: "No matter what the union proposed short of the commissioner's position, he rejected it, knowing the Congressional sword hovered over the players' heads." I think sword is referring to the sword of Damocles.

Achilles Heel: A vulnerable point.
Internet Use: "Giuliani’s Achilles Heel: Immigration"

Oedipus Complex: The positive libidinal feelings of a child toward the parent of the opposite sex and hostile or jealous feelings toward the parent of the same sex that may be a source of adult personality disorder when unresolved.
Internet Use: "Howard G Schneiderman letter contends that before feminists and others write off Freud and Oedipus complex as irrelevant, they should re-read him carefully."

Midas: A person of great wealth or great moneymaking ability.
Internet Use: "The Midas Touch"

Hades: The underworld inhabited by departed souls. The abode or state of the dead; hell. The god ruling the underworld; Pluto.
Internet Use: "One poignant spot at the sanctuary is Kallichoron Well, where the goddess Demeter wept over the loss of her daughter, whom Hades (Pluto) spirited away."

Spartan: Brave; undaunted. Of or pertaining to Sparta or its people. Sggestive of the ancient Spartans; sternly disciplined and rigorously simple, frugal, or austere.
Internet Use: "It was clear where the money had been spent, and it wasn't in the spartan rooms. "

Titanic: Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Titans. Of enormous size, strentgth, power, etc; gigantic.
Internet Use: "The White Star liner Olympic reports by wireless this evening that the Cunarder Carpathia reached, at daybreak this morning, the position from which wireless calls for help were sent out last night by the Titanic after her collision with an iceberg." The boat was probably called Titanic because of its enormous size.

Marathon: A foot race over a course measuring 26 mi. 385 yd. (42 km 195 m). Any long-distance race.Any contest, event, or the like, of great, or greater than normal length or duration or requiring exceptional endurance.
Internet Use: "News about the New York City Marathon, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times."