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

tails of two cats together and then hanging them
up to fi ght. When an offi cer approached, one of
the soldiers quickly severed the cats’ tails; when
asked about the two tails he held in his hand the
trooper explained that the cats had been fi ghting
with such ferocity that they had consumed each
other all but the tails. When the women realized how
they had been tricked they fought like Kilkenny cats.
fi ght the good fi ght To pursue a goal (especially
a religious one) with determination and courage.
<strong>The</strong> expression comes from 1 Timothy 6:12: “Fight
the good fi ght of faith, lay hold on eternal life,
whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed
a good profession before many witnesses.” <strong>The</strong>
phrase is commonly applied to the struggle of life
itself, and Paul, foreseeing his own death, wrote, “I
have fought the good fi ght, I have fi nished my
course” (2 Timothy 4:7). “He did become member
for East Barsetshire, but he was such a member—
so lukewarm, so indifferent, so prone to associate
with the enemies of the good cause, so little willing
to fi ght the good fi ght, that he soon disgusted
those who most dearly loved the memory of the
old squire” (Anthony Trollope, Doctor Thorne,
1858).
fi g leaf Something that serves, usually inadequately,
to conceal a person’s weaknesses or innermost
feelings. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the fi g leaves with
which Adam and Eve sought to conceal their
nakedness after tasting the fruit of the tree of
knowledge of good and evil and losing their innocence:
“And the eyes of them both were opened,
and they knew that they were naked; and they
sewed fi g leaves together, and made themselves
aprons” (Genesis 3:7). This gesture was not well
received and was generally considered a very inadequate
fi g leaf to cover up for past indiscretions.
fi lthy lucre Money; material wealth. <strong>The</strong> phrase
appears in 1 Timothy 3:3, in which Timothy warns
that leaders of the church should be “not greedy
of fi lthy lucre.” “Mrs. Dean was a very good
woman, but she had aspirations in the direction of
fi lthy lucre on behalf of her children, or at least
on behalf of this special child, and she did think it
would be very nice if Frank would marry an heiress”
(Anthony Trollope, <strong>The</strong> Eustace Diamonds,
1873).
fi nal solution An extreme mea sure taken to
bring something to an end. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the
Final Solution devised in Nazi Germany to eradicate
Eu rope’s Jewish population through systematic
persecution and a policy of genocide. <strong>The</strong>
phrase was apparently fi rst employed, on January
20, 1942, by Nazi offi cial Reinhardt Heydrich
when reporting to Adolf hitler on the various
ways in which the populations under German
control might be purged of “undesirable” elements.
<strong>The</strong> term remains highly contentious and
is generally only employed in relation to the most
extreme and inhuman schemes. It has been suggested
that the Serbs had in mind their own Final Solution
to eliminate those parts of the population that
came from a different ethnic background. See also
holocaust.
fi n de siècle (fan(g) db syeklb, fan db seeekbl) A
period of de cadent excess. <strong>The</strong> term originally
alluded specifi cally to the last de cade of the 19th
century, which witnessed something of a relaxation
of the rules governing contemporary Western
culture and society and a growing willingness
to challenge conventional ideas and codes of
behavior. In modern usage, the expression has
been applied less restrictively to allude to any time
in which accepted moral standards are perceived
fi n de siècle
165