ArcaMax

In ancient times, new words were formed at every turn.

When the Greeks won a battle, for instance, their victorious warriors would high-five one another and then begin assembling a memorial to their victory.

At the exact spot where their opponents had turned and fled, they'd pile up the uniforms, helmets and shields left on the battlefield and dedicate this heap of stuff to a god.

Greek victor No. 1: Are you sure this is the place where they turned around?

Greek victor No. 2: Yeah, this is where that little, loud-mouthed guy yelled, "Let's get the heck outta here!" ... Uh, please pass me that breastplate.

Because these impromptu victory memorials were erected where the enemy had turned around, such structures were called "tropaion," derived from "tropaios," meaning "of a turning."

The Romans adopted this Greek word as "trophaeum" and used it to describe a wide variety of military memorials. "Trophaeum" became "trophy" in English, where it soon came to denote success in everything from bowling to badminton to romance.

Romance? Yup. Some people view a man's attractive wife as a prize or reward for his success, so they call her a "trophy wife."

And when a word is used figuratively this way, we call it a "trope" because the literal meaning of the word has been "turned" in another direction.

Newly minted trophy wives and their wealthy husbands might spend their honeymoons in the "tropics," another word derived from "tropos" (to turn).

On the solstice every six months, the direct rays of the sun reach their most northern or southern declination and then "turn" back toward the equator. So each of the two lines of latitude the sun reaches (23.5 degrees north and south of the equator) is called a "tropic," as in "Tropic of Cancer" and "Tropic of Capricorn." That's why the warm regions between these lines are known as the "tropics."

The concept of turning also gives us the word "tournament," which derives from the Latin "tornare" (to turn).

"Tournament" was first used to describe jousting contests in which a group of knights paired off and charged each other one on one, each trying to "turn around" or tilt his opponent. The valiant knight who won all of his matchups was declared the winner.

Eventually "tournament" became a general term for any contest in which many opponents or teams compete against one another until only one remains.

Thus, "trophy wife," "Tropic of Cancer" and "single-elimination tournament" are all "turns of phrase" in more ways than one.

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Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Connecticut, invites your language sightings. His book, "Mark My Words," is available for $9.99 on Amazon.com. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via email to WordGuy@aol.com or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM

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