sword of Damocles

hangs by a single horse-hair over every happiness lived under constant fear: seeing it, Damocles lost all desire to be happy.

Recast in definition form from: “In the midst of this apparatus, Dionysius ordered a bright sword to be let down from the ceiling, suspended by a single horse-hair, so as to hang over the head of that happy man.”

fear

security

danger

power

tyranny

anxiety

Cicero

acronyms

anagram

antonym

Back in My Day

binomial

blonde joke

bumper sticker

Chuck Norris

cockney rhyming slang

collective noun

comeback

confucius say

cool comparisons

curse

death mask

Deep Thoughts

etymology

false attribution

famous last word

glossary

greeting

haiku

home remedy

I like my [x] like I like my [y]

idiom

let's make like a  . . .

life hack

light bulb joke

limerick

mixed metaphor

mnemonic device

murphy's law

my wife left me

nonsense question

ology (the study of)

optical illusion

oxymoron

palindrome

phobia

pickup line

psychological phenomena and effects

reimagining the x

riddle

seen here

slang

someone should invent

stupid law

superlative

superstition

symbolism

there's a word for that

things that look like other things

Thomasson hyperart

toast (speech)

Tom Swifty

tongue twister

trolley problem

untranslatable word

wacky wares

weather lore

WTF origins

sword of damocles, n.All

sword of damocles