Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
E. Cobham Brewer From The Edition Of 1894
the 24th letter of the Roman alphabet, the base of the decimal system
From the Latin X, which is from the Greek Chi, which in some Greek alphabets had the value of ks.
A letter resembling “y” was the Anglo—Saxon character for th (hard); hence etc., are sometimes made to stand for the, that, this.
X on beer—casks indicates beer which paid ten shillings duty, and hence it came to mean beer of a given quality. Two or three crosses are mere trade—marks, intended to convey the notion of twice or thrice as strong as that which pays ten shillings duty.
Xanthos
[reddish yellow ]. Achilles' wonderful horse. Being chid by his master for leaving Patroclos on the field of battle, the horse turned his head reproachfully, and told Achilles that he also would soon be numbered with the dead, not from any fault of his horse, but by the decree of inexorable destiny. (Iliad, xix.) (Compare Numbers xxii. 28—30.)
Xanthos and Balios (swift as the wind) were the offspring of Podarge the harpy and Zephyros. (See Horse.)
Xanthos, the river of Troas. Elian and Pliny say that Homer called the Scamander “Xanthos” or the
“Gold—red river,” because it coloured with such a tinge the fleeces of sheep washed in its waters.
Others maintain that it was so called because a hero named Xanthos defeated a body of Trojans on its banks, and pushed half of them into the stream, as in the battle of Blenheim the Duke of Marlborough drove the French into the Danube.
Xanthus.
A large shell like those ascribed to the Tritons. The volutes generally run from right to left; and if the Indians find a shell with the volutes running in the contrary direction, they persist that one of their gods has got into the shell for concealment.
Xantippe
or Xanthippe (3 syl.). Wife of the philosopher Socrates. Her bad temper has rendered her name proverbial for a conjugal scold.
“Be she as foul as was Florentius' love,
As old as Sibyl, and as curst and shrewd
As Socrates' Xanthippe, or a worse,
She moves me not.”
Shakespeare: Taming of the Shrew. i 2.
Xenocrates
A disciple of Plato, noted for his continence and contempt of wealth. (B.C. 396—314.)
“Warmed by such youthful beauty, the severe
Xenocrates would not have more been chaste” Orlando Furioso, xi. 8.
Xerxes
(2 syl.). A Greek way of writing the Persian Ksathra or Kshatra, a royal title assumed by Isfundear, son of Gushtasp, darawesh. (See Darius .)
When Xerxes invaded Greece he constructed a pontoon bridge across the Dardanelles, which, being swept away by the force of the waves, so enraged the Persian despot that be “inflicted three hundred lashes on the rebellious sea, and cast chains of iron across it.” This story is probably a Greek myth, founded on the peculiar construction of Xerxes' second bridge, which consisted of three hundred boats, lashed by iron chains to two ships serving as supporters. As for the scourging, without doubt it was given to the engineers and not to the waves.
Xerxes' Tears
It is said that when Xerxes, King of Persia, reviewed his magnificent and enormous army before starting for Greece, he wept at the thought of slaughter about to take place. “Of all this multitude, who shall say how many will return?” Emerson, in his English Traits, chap. iv., speaks of the Emperor Charlemagne viewing the fleet of the Norsemen in the Mediterranean Sea with tears in his eyes, and adds, “There was reason for these Xerxes' tears.”
Xerxes wept at the prospective loss he expected to suffer in the invasion prepared, but Charlemagne wept at the prospective disruption of his kingdom by the hardy Norsemen.
Ximena
The Cid's bride
Xit
Royal dwarf to Edward VI.
Xury
A Moresco boy, servant to Robinson Crusoe. (De Foe: Robinson Crusoe.)