vented a chain and scale for measur-
ing.

Acestes, "The Arrow of Acestes "
A reference to Ǣneid, V. 525. Acestes,
in a trial of skill, discharged his arrow
with such force that it caught fire.
The phrase is used to describe the
arguments of an orator who makes his
point with telling force by fiery
vehemence.

Achilles, Heel of. A vulnerable
spot. The metaphor comes from My-
thology. When Thetis, mother of Achil-
les, dipped her son in the River Styx
to make him invulnerable, she held
him by one heel which, being un-
touched by the Stygian water, re-
mained liable to attack. It was in this
heel that Achilles did, in fact, receive
his mortal wound at the Scaean gates,
before Troy was taken, from an arrow.

Achilles of England. The name
given to the Duke of Wellington
( 1769-1852).

Achilles Tendon. The sinew run-
ning along the heel to the calf of the
leg.

Acme, the acme of. The highest
pitch (of perfection), the limit. Early
doctors divided a disease into four
periods: the arche, beginning; anotasis,
increase; the acme, state of its utmost
violence; and the paracme, the decline.

Acre. A measured size of ground.
But originally the word meant any
field, whatever its size, being derived
from the Anglo-Saxon word aecer,
meaning land, or anything sown. Up
to the thirteenth century an acre
meant in England as much land as a
yoke of oxen could plough in a day.
It was not until the time of Edward I
that the word became more definite;
and by an act of George IV the vary-
ing measures of the acre then current
in the kingdom were reduced to one
uniform standard. But even now, the
Scottish and Irish acres differ in size
from the English.

Acrobat. Has nothing to do with
acting, or with bats. It is from the
Greek akros, the point or extremity,
and baino, to go. It means a person
who goes on his extremities, i.e., uses
only his fingers or toes in moving
about.

Adam. "When Adam delved and
Eve span; Who was, then, the gentle-
man?" According to Thomas Walsingham's
Historia Anglicana, the origin
of this oft-quoted couplet was an ad-
dress given to the rebels in Wat Ty-
ler's insurrection at Blackheath ( 1381),
the speaker John Ball. In point of fact,
it was a misquotation, or adaptation,
of lines written by Richard Rolle of
Hampole, who died about 1349: --

"When Adam dalfe and Eve spanne
To spire of thou may spede,
Where was then the pride of man,
That now marres his meed?"

Adams apple. The protuberance
in the forepart of the throat formed
by the anterior part of the thyroid
cartilage of the larynx, is so-called
from the notion that a piece of the
Forbidden Fruit stuck in Adam's
throat.

Adam's wine. Water, because
Adam knew not the fermented juice
of the grape.

Adding insult to injury. In this
tag, to express a double injury we
quote, unknowingly, the classics. The
phrase is from a fable quoted by the
Latin writer Phaedrus, who took it
from the more ancient version of
Ǣsop. It relates how a bald man who
was bitten on his bald head by a fly,
in trying to kill the insect, gave him-
self a hard smack. The fly said, jeer-
ingly, "You wanted to kill me for a
touch -- what will you do to yourself
now that you have added insult to
injury?"

Adelphi. Once noted streets and
a terrace on the south side of the
Strand, London. Adelphi is a Greek

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