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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origin sixty-seven. The word origin

  • today is Achilles' heel. Okay. So let's take a look at the note here. If we refer

  • to someone's Achilles heel, we are referring to the weakest point of their

  • body character or nature in which an enemy or competitor may attack or could

  • attack if they realize, if they can pinpoint their their Achilles heel. Okay.

  • Let's continue. The origin in this phrase came directly from Greek mythology. It is

  • from" The Iliad 'or sometimes you hear the full stories "The Iliad and the Odyssey"

  • by Homer. According to the story Thetis, the mother of Achilles tried to

  • make her son immortal. She did this by dipping his body into the river Styx.

  • Interesting, believed to make one immortal and invincible. Invincible you

  • know they can't be conquered. When we do know that of course Achilles ended

  • up being almost an invincible warrior, he could beat almost anybody. However, when

  • she dipped her son into the river she held him by one of his heels, which was

  • never touched by the water. This part of his body was therefore his one vulnerable

  • weak spot. Eventually Achilles got killed by one... No

  • got killed by Paris who in the story was a weak character but got in a lucky shot.

  • Yeah. I remember the movie the one with Brad Pitt I think when Orlando Bloom

  • played Paris and they, they they made in the movie they made Paris out to be like

  • a very romantic sort of a character. But if you read the mythology story he's not

  • really and he was kind of he was kind of not very brave. But anyway, he did get

  • in... ironically he got in the lucky shot that was the one that eventually brought

  • Achilles down. All right. Let's continue. The origin is also connected to the term

  • Achilles tendon. A tendon in one's body connected to one's heel. So of course we

  • also get that from the story of Achilles in Greek mythology.

  • All right , and here's just a couple of examples of the way you might hear it. In

  • fantasy stories, the Achilles heel of a dragon is usually their underbelly. So

  • in these stories when they're fighting a dragon you know, sometimes if you could

  • shoot an arrow up under from their underbelly andl find the right spot

  • maybe get to their heart. Maybe that's the spot with the least protection or

  • the least armour on a dragon. So that might be their Achilles heel. Or number

  • two Superman's Achilles heel was kryptonite. We know from the comic book.

  • That was the one weakness that you know, wherever , whatever planet Superman was

  • supposed to be originally from kryptonite was was bad for them. They

  • could not take that. So his Achilles heel was kryptonite. But really in anybody

  • could be anything. It could be like a character flaw or part of their nature

  • that that is that one small thing that can bring them down. That's what we mean

  • that could be somebody's Achilles heel. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. I

  • hope it was informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origin sixty-seven. The word origin

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