{UAH} WORD OF THE DAY March 21, 2019------hamartia

WORD OF THE DAY March 21, 2019

hamartia    noun | hah-mahr-TEE-uh     Definition   : a flaw in character that brings about the downfall of the hero of a tragedy : tragic flaw   Scroll down for more about hamartia      TRENDING NOW: mendacious mendacity crawdad non sequitur SEE ALL      PEOPLE ARE READING   8 Words for Small Amounts       Spreading the Word on 'Leak'     The Sartorial Secret Behind the 'Schneid'       Sometimes '-less' Is More         WORD GAMES AND QUIZZES: WEEKLY CHALLENGE   A Green Quiz   How many questions can you answer about the word "green"?     PLAY NOW     Nailed this quiz? We have plenty more to try!  TAKE ME THERE         Did You Know?   Hamartia arose from the Greek verb hamartanein, meaning "to miss the mark" or "to err." Aristotle introduced the term in the Poetics to describe the error of judgment which ultimately brings about the tragic hero's downfall. As you can imagine, the word is most often found in literary criticism. However, media writers occasionally employ the word when discussing the unexplainable misfortune or missteps of celebrities regarded as immortal gods and goddesses before being felled by their own shortcomings. For example, a writer for The New Republic in an April 2018 review of Chappaquiddick (a movie about U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy) comments that "Kennedy's ruthlessness and ambition, which are treated as the family's hamartia in Chappaquiddick, are swept under the rug of his compassion."     Examples of HAMARTIA   Greed was the hamartia that ultimately brought down the protagonist.   "Characters in Greek tragedies usually had a hamartia, or fatal flaw. Hubris, pride, presumption and arrogance were some of the chief character traits that brought down peasants and emperors alike." — Christine Barnes, The Tallahassee (Florida) Democrat, 6 May 2010   Test Your Vocabulary   What is the meaning of bildungsroman?   VIEW THE ANSWER           WORD OF THE YEAR 2018     Justice + 10 more   Read why justice is our Word of the Year, plus lodestar, epiphany, pansexual, and 7 more top words!   SEE THE FULL LIST            MORE WORD FUN:     WORD GAMES          TRENDING NOW          WORDS AT PLAY      FOLLOW US:

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