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

derives from an Anglo- Saxon translation of the
Latin evangelium as godspell, signifying “good tidings.”
<strong>The</strong> biblical Gospels are the New Testament
books of the life of Christ, as written by Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John. <strong>The</strong> word is often used as a
synonym for the actual teachings of Christ or,
more specifi cally, the message of God’s salvation
of humanity through the life, death, and resurrection
of Christ (as in Romans 1:16). In modern
usage a gospel truth is something that is generally
regarded as irrefutable, while any source or
authority described as gospel is considered essential
or reliable. “. . . the mere opportunity of
venting a little ill- nature against the offending
Miss Price, and affecting to compassionate her
weaknesses and foibles, though only in the presence
of a solitary dependant, was almost as great
a relief to her spleen as if the whole had been
gospel truth” (Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby,
1838–39).
Gotham (gothbm) A village, town, or city of
fools. <strong>The</strong> residents of the En glish village of
Gotham in Nottinghamshire were traditionally
considered to be the epitome of slow- witted peasants
(medieval legend had it that they once tried
to capture a cuckoo by building a wall around it,
only for the bird to fl y over the top). Another old
tradition claims that the inhabitants of Gotham
(sometimes called the Wise Men of Gotham)
were actually very cunning, only pretending to be
fools in order to escape their public duties, such as
paying tithes to the church. Washington Irving
(1783–1859) used the same name to mock the
follies of the residents of New York City, and in the
20th century the name reemerged in that of
Gotham City, home of the fi ctional superheroes
batman and robin and an allegory of the sinful,
violent, and chaotic modern urban metropolis. It
was an act of folly that would not have looked out of
place in Gotham.
go the extra/second mile To make a special effort
to do something beyond the norm; to go beyond
the call of duty. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to Christ’s saying in
the Sermon on the Mount: “And whosoever shall
compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain”
(Matthew 5:41). “I was sort of lukewarm about
the British before, but I’m more positive now
they’re willing to go the extra mile” (<strong>The</strong> New York
Observer, October 12, 2001).
go the way of all fl esh To die or disappear fi nally.
<strong>The</strong> expression alludes to the biblical phrase
“go the way of all the earth” in Joshua 23:14 and
1 Kings 2:2. “And yet—what could one do? Buy
them and stick them in a lumber- room? No; they
had to go the way of all fl esh and furniture, and be
worn out” ( John Galsworthy, <strong>The</strong> Forsyte Saga,
1906–21).
Gothic An essentially medieval style of art and
architecture whose characteristics include pointed
arches, rich detail, and fl amboyant decoration.
<strong>The</strong> Gothic style was condemned by Re nais sance
artists and architects as primitive to the point of
barbarism, hence the link with the warlike Goths,
the Germanic people who destroyed many fi ne
works of art as they laid waste to much of the
Roman Empire between the third and fi fth centuries
a.d. <strong>The</strong> style nonetheless became pop u lar
again during the Gothic Revival of the late 18th
and 19th centuries. <strong>The</strong> term gothic also came to
be applied to a genre of literature characterized
by gloom and the grotesque that enjoyed a considerable
vogue during the Gothic Revival. Gothic
writers wrote macabre stories of horror, passion
and the supernatural against a backdrop of
Gothic
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