Chapter Delaware to Democritos of D by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Delphin Classics A set of Latin classics edited in France by thirty-nine scholars, under the superintendence of Montausier, Bossuet, and Huet, for the use of the son of Louis XIV., called the Grand Dauphin. Their chief value consists in their verbal indexes or concordances.

Delta The island formed at the mouth of a river, which usually assumes a triangular form, like the Greek letter () called delta; as the delta of the Nile, the delta of the Danube, Rhine, Ganges, Indus, Niger, Mississippi, Po, and so on.

Deluge After me the Deluge ["Après moi le Déluge "]. When I am dead the deluge may come for aught I care. Generally ascribed to Prince Metternich, but the Prince borrowed it from Mme. Pompadour, who laughed off all the remonstrances of ministers at her extravagance by saying, "Après nous le déluge" (Ruin, if you like, when we are dead and gone).

Deluges (3 syl.). The chief, besides that recorded in the Bible, are the following: - The deluge of Fohi, the Chinese; the Satyavrata, of the Indians; the Xisuthrus, of the Assyrians; the Mexican deluge; and the Greek deluges of Deucalion and Ogyges.
    The most celebrated painting of Noah's Flood is by Poussin, in Paris; and that by Raphael is in the Vatican (Rome).

Demerit has reversed its original meaning (Latin, demereo, to merit, to deserve). Hence Plautus, Demertas dare laudas (to accord due praise); Ovid, Numina culta demeruisse; Livy, dernerèri beneficio civitatem. The de - is intensive, as in "de-mand," "de-scribe," "de-claim," etc.; not the privative deorsum, as in the word "de-fame."

"My demerits [deserts]
May speak unbonneted."
Shakespeare: Othello, i. 2.

Demijohn (A). A glass vessel with a large body and small neck, enclosed in wickerwork like a Florence flask, and containing more than a bottle. (French, dame-jeanne, "Madam Jane," a corruption of Damaghan, a town in Persia famous for its glass works.)

Demi-monde Lorettes, courtezans. Le beau monde means "fashionable society," and demi-monde the society only half acknowledged.

"Demi-monde implies not only recognition and a status, but a certain social standing." - Saturday Review.

Demi-rep A woman whose character has been blown upon. Contraction of demi-reputation.

Demiurge (3 syl.), in the language of Platonists, means that mysterious agent which made the world and all that it contains. The Logos or Word spoken of by St. John, in the first chapter of his gospel, is the Demiurgus of Platonising Christians. In the Gnostic systems, Jehovah (as an eon or emanation of the Supreme Being) is the Demiurge.

"The power is not that of an absolute cause, but only a world-maker, a demiurge; and this does not answer to the human idea of deity." - Winchell: Science and Religion, chap. x. p.295.

Demobilisation of troops. The disorganisation of them, the disarming of them. This is a French military term. To "mobilise" troops is to render them liable to be moved on service out of their quarters; to "demobilise" them is to send them home, so that they cannot be moved from their quarters against anyone. To change from a war to a peace footing.

Democracy A Republican form of government, a commonwealth. (Greek, demos-kratia, the rule of the people.)

Democritos The laughing philosopher of Abdera. He should rather be termed the deriding philosopher, because he derided or laughed at people's folly or vanity. It is said that he put out his eyes that he might