The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

Desert Rats
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Othello wrongly comes to believe that Desdemona
has been unfaithful to him and murders her.
Her name is based on the Greek dusdaimon, meaning
“ill- fated.” She played Desdemona in this unhappy
sequence of events that resulted in all involved being
exposed to public humiliation in the press.
Desert Rats A military force that specializes in
operations in desert areas. <strong>The</strong> allusion is ultimately
to the British Seventh Armoured Division,
which distinguished itself in action against the
German Afrika Korps in Libya during World War
II. Members of the division wore a badge depicting
a desert rat ( jerboa). <strong>The</strong> nickname was subsequently
applied to the Seventh Armoured Brigade,
which went on to see action in Bosnia and Iraq. A
new generation of Desert Rats are adding fresh honors to
the regimental rec ords.
desert shall blossom, the <strong>The</strong> land will be
returned to its rightful own ers one day. <strong>The</strong> phrase
comes from Isaiah 35:1–2, which consists of the
prophecy that the Israelites shall one day reclaim
their homeland in Zion: “<strong>The</strong> desert shall rejoice,
and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly,
and rejoice even with joy and singing.” This
was originally a promise that the Babylonian exiles
would return to their homeland in Palestine, but
in modern times the prophecy has been quoted
many times by those defending the controversial
extension of Israeli settlements into areas formerly
populated by Palestinians. <strong>The</strong> Israeli government has
promised that the desert shall bloom, but without detailing
the cost they are prepared to pay in lives.
deus ex machina (daybs eks makinb) An unexpected
or contrived solution to an apparently
insoluble diffi culty. Literally translated from Latin
as “a god from a machine,” the expression referred
originally to the practice of Euripides (c. 484–406
b.c.) and other classical Greek dramatists of bringing
their plots to an artifi cial resolution in the fi nal
act through the sudden appearance on stage of a
god, who used his powers to make everything
right. It is thought that such characters were lowered
from above the stage using some kind of
mechanical device, hence “from a machine.” “Dr
Gwynne was the Deus ex machina who was to
come down upon the Barchester stage and bring
about deliverance from these terrible evils” (Anthony
Trollope, Barchester Towers, 1857).
dev il See satan.
De Vil, Cruella See cruella de vil.
dev il chained A potentially harmful individual,
creature, or ga ni za tion, etc., that has been placed
under restraint. <strong>The</strong> expression alludes to the
image given to John of Satan being put in chains:
“And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent
which is the Dev il, and Satan, and bound him a
thousand years” (Revelation 20:2). <strong>The</strong> vicious old
man thrashed and strained in the arms that held him
back, like a dev il chained.
dev il’s advocate A person who takes an opposing
view in order to test the strength of an argument.
<strong>The</strong> phrase, which was originally rendered in Latin
as advocatus diaboli, was used as a title in the Roman
Catholic Church for an offi cial who was appointed
to seek out weaknesses in the cases of individuals
proposed for beatifi cation or canonization. In
modern usage, the term is often applied to any
person who adopts an unpop u lar or mischievous
stance on something, usually motivated by the
urge to express a contrasting opinion to that generally
held. Her father liked playing dev il’s advocate,