Word of the Day (or more particularly, Term of the Day): Deus ex Machina : a character or thing that suddenly enters the story in a novel, play, movie, etc., and solves a problem that had previously seemed impossible to solve 1: a god introduced by means of a crane in ancient Greek and Roman drama to decide the final outcome 2: a person or thing (as in fiction or drama) that appears or is introduced suddenly and unexpectedly and provides a contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty New Latin, a god from a machine, translation of Greek theos ek mēchanēs First Known Use: 1697 Stage device in Greek and Roman drama in which a god appeared in the sky by means of a crane (Greek, mechane) to resolve the plot of a play. Plays by Sophocles and particularly Euripides sometimes require the device. The term now denotes something that appears suddenly and unexpectedly and provides an artificial solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 16:47:23 +0000
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