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Diomedean Swop An exchange in which all the benefit is on one side. This proverbial expression is
founded on an incident related by Homer in the Iliad. Glaucus recognises Diomed on the battle-field,
and the friends change armour. "For Diomed's brass arms, of mean device,Diomedes or Diomed. King of Ætolia, in Greece, brave and obedient to authority. He survived the siege of Troy; but on his return home found his wife living in adultery, and saved his life by living an exile in Italy. (Homer: Iliad.) Dione (3 syl.). Venus, who sprang from the froth of the sea, after the mutilated body of Uranus (the sky)
had been thrown there by Saturn. "So young Dione, nursed beneath the wavesDionysius (the younger) being banished a second time from Syracuse, retired to Corinth, where he turned schoolmaster for a living. Posterity called him a tyrant. Byron, in his Ode to Napoleon, alludes to these facts in the following lines - "Corinth's pedagogue hath nowThat is, Napoleon is now called tyrant like Dionysius. Dionysos The Greek name of Bacchus (q.v.). Diophantine Analysis Finding commensurate values of squares, cubes, triangles etc. or the sum of
a given number of squares which is itself a square; or a certain number of squares etc. which are in
arithmetical progression. The following examples will give some idea of the theory: Dioscuri Castor and Pollux. (Greek, Dios kouros, young men of Zeus; dios is gen. of Zeus.) Diotrephes One who loves to have the pre-eminence among others. (3 John 9.) "Neither a desperate Judas, like the prelate Sharpe [archbishop of St. Andrew's who was murdered], that's gone to his place; nor a sanctuary-breaking Holofernes, like the bloody-minded Claverhouse; nor an ambitious Diotrephes, like the lad [Lord] Evandale ... shall resist the arrows that are whetted and the bow that is bent against you." - Sir W. Scott Old Mortality chap.xiv.Dip (A). A tallow-chandler, one who makes or sells candles or "dips." These candles are made by dipping into melted tallow the cotton which forms the wick. (Anglo-Saxon dippan to dip.) Diphthera The skin of the goat Amalthe'a on which Jove wrote the destiny of man. Diphtheria is an infectious disease of the throat so called from its tendency to form a false membrane. Diploma literally means something folded (Greek). Diplomas used to be written on parchment, folded, and sealed. The word is applied to licences given to graduates to assume a degree, to clergymen, to physicians, agents, and so on. Diplomacy The tact, negotiations, privileges, etc. of a diplomatist, or one who carries a diploma to a foreign court to authorise him to represent the Government which sends him out. |
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