Chapter Eumæ'os to Every Man Jack of Them of E by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Eumæ'os to Every Man Jack of Them

Eumæ'os or Eumæus. A swineherd. So called from the slave and swineherd of Ulysses.

"This second Eumæus strode hastily down the forest glade, driving before him ... the whole herd of his inharmonious charge." - Sir Walter Scott.

Eumenides [the good-tempered goddesses ]. A name given by the Greeks to the Furies, as it would have been ominous and bad policy to call them by their right name, Erinnyes.

Eumnestes [Memory ], who, being very old, keeps a little boy named Anamnestes [Research ] to fetch books from the shelves. (Spenser: Faërie Queene, book ii. 9.)

Eunomians Heretics, the disciples of Eunomius, Bishop of Cyzicum in the fourth century. They maintained that the Father was of a different nature to the Son, and that the Son did not in reality unite Himself to human nature.

Eupatridæ The oligarchy of Attica. These lords of creation were subsequently set aside, and a democratic form of government established.

Euphemisms Words or phrases substituted, to soften down offensive expressions.
   Place never mentioned to ears polite. In the reign of Charles II., a worthy divine of Whitehall thus concluded his sermon: "If you don't live up to the precepts of the Gospel ... you must expect to receive your reward in a certain place which 'tis not good manners to mention here" (Laconics). Pope tells us this worthy divine was a dean: -

"To rest the cushion and soft dean invite,
Who never mentioned hell to ears polite."
Moral Essays, epist. iv. 49, 50.

   "His Satanic majesty;" "light-fingered gentry;" "a gentleman on his travels" (one transported); "she has met with an accident" (has had a child before marriage); "help" or "employé" (a servant); "not quite correct" (a false-hood); "an obliquity of vision" (a squint); "an innocent" (a fool), "beldam" (an ugly woman), and hundreds of others.

Eureka or rather Heureka (I have found it out). The exclamation of Archimedes, the Syracusan philosopher, when he discovered how to test the purity of Hiero's crown. The tale is, that Hiero delivered a certain weight of gold to a workman, to be made into a votive crown, but suspecting that the workman had alloyed the gold with an inferior metal, asked Archimedes to test the crown. The philosopher went to bathe, and, in stepping into the bath, which was quite full, observed that some of the water ran over. It immediately struck him that a body must remove its own bulk of water when it is immersed, and putting his idea to the test, found his surmise to be correct. Now then, for the crown. Silver is lighter than gold, therefore a pound-weight of silver will be more bulky than a pound-weight of gold, and being of greater bulk will remove more water. Vitruvius says "When the idea flashed across his mind, the philosopher jumped out of the bath exclaiming, `Heureka! heureka!' and, without waiting to dress himself, ran home to try the experiment." Dryden has mistaken the quantity in the lines -

"The deist thinks he stands on firmer ground,
Cries `Eureka!' the mighty secret's found."
Religio Laici, 42. 43

But Byron has preserved the right quantity -

"Now we clap
Our hands and cry `Eureka!' "
Childe Harold, iv. st. 81

    The omission of the initial H finds a parallel in our word udometer for "hudometer," emerods for "hemorrhoids," erpetology for "herpetology"; on the other hand, we write humble-pie for "umble-pie."

Eurus (2 syl.). The east wind. So called, says Buttmann, from eös, the east. Probably it is eos cru'o, drawn from the east. Ovid confirms this etymology: "Vires capit Eurus ab ortu. " Breman says it is a corruption of ewroz.

"While southern gales or western oceans roll,
And Eurus steals his ice-winds from the pole."
Darwin: Economy of Vegetation, canto vi.

Eurydice (4 syl.). Wife of Orpheus, killed by a serpent on her wedding night. Orpheus went down to the infernal regions to seek her, and was promised she should return on condition that he looked not back till she had reached the upper world. When the poet got to the confines of his