Marathon

This is courtesy a friend who’s running a 26.2 miles marathon this June to raise funds for cancer research. A marathon is called so in remembrance of a Greek soldier who as the legend goes, ran from Marathon to Athens (about 25 miles) to report the Greek victory over Perisans at the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. And then he dropped dead :(

Image: The soldier of Marathon announces the victory, from Google Images.

Laconic

Laconic - Terse and concise

I still remember 666's fascination with Zach Snyder's movie "300" and the lengthy discourses he delved into before the movie was released. I never got around to watching the movie but the dialogues he listed on one of his posts stayed with me. Little did I know then, that they will lead me to origin of the word laconic. Laconia is the name of a region of Greece of which Sparta was the capital. The Spartans, noted for being warlike and disciplined, were also known for the bluntness of the speech and for their dry wit. And hence the word laconic!

Trivia: An example of a Spartan laconic exchange: When Philip II of Macedon turned his attention to Sparta after having key Greek city-states in submission, he sent a message: "If I win this war, you will be slaves forever." The Spartans sent back a one word reply: "If".

Sources: www.answers.com, Google Images

Utopia

Utopia - An ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects.

The trivia that this word comes along with is more fascinating than its etymology which is quite simple, really. Etymologically Utopia = no place as it comes from the Greek "ou" that means "not" and "topos" that means "place". It was the title of a 1516 Latin book by an English scholar and eventual saint, Sir Thoma More wherein he described an ideal state where all is ordered for the best for humanity as a whole and where the evils of society, such as poverty and misery, have been eliminated. He called this ideal imaginary island "Utopia" - nowhere, as it seemed unattainable.

The title carries a pun that may be a consequence of mis-translations or propagated by More himself where "u" in Utopia is mistaken as "eu" that means good in Greek.
Dystopia is the anti-utopia.

Trivia 1 :More is listed in Red Square as one of the heroes of the Russian Revolution because his Utopia was supposedly a primitive communist state of justice and perfect social conditions. This while Utopia was an imaginary place and Thomas More a lawyer himself was a capitalist.

Trivia 2: More opposed King Henry VIII's divorce from Catherine of Aragon, which ultimately led to the separation of the Church of England from the Roman Catholic Church. This cost him his head, but gained him sainthood as a Catholic martyr.

Sources: http://www.answers.com, http://www.hellskitchen.com/