Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles 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.
B1 US achilles heel invincible mythology dragon origin English Tutor Nick P Word Origins (67) Achilles' Heel 14 1 anitawu12 posted on 2019/08/21 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary