Today's Word "Myrmidon"
Published in Vocabulary
myrmidon \MI(r)-meh-dahn\ (noun) - In Greek mythology, a warlike people of ancient Thessaly, said to have been created from ants by the god Zeus; hence, any objectionably industrious lackey.
"I had a visit from one of the Dean's myrmidons; apparently, I'm not to give my academic affiliation in any future articles I write for the National Enquirer."
From Greek murmex "an ant," which also gives us myrmecology "the study of ants" and myrmecophagous "ant-eating." In Latin the related word for ant was "formica," from which we have the former Word of the Day "formication," the sensation of ants crawling under the skin. The proprietary name "Formica" applies to a plastic laminate ultimately derived from formic acid (which comes from ants), but it is also a punit was originally developed as an electrical insulator that could be substituted "for mica."
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