Word - 90

FIFTH COLUMN \FIFTH-KAH-lum\ noun

: a group of secret sympathizers or supporters of an enemy that engage in espionage or sabotage within defense lines or national borders

Example sentence:
In the 1950s the Communist Party was denounced in the United States as a fifth column, and many people were unjustly blacklisted as Communist sympathizers.

Did you know?

"Fifth column," a translation of the Spanish "quinta columna," was inspired by a boast by rebel general Emilio Mola during the Spanish Civil War. Mola predicted Madrid would fall as four columns of rebel troops approaching the city were joined by another hidden column of sympathizers within it. In an October 1936 article in The New York Times, William Carney described those secret rebel supporters as the "fifth column," and English speakers seized upon the term. It gained widespread popularity after Ernest Hemingway used it in the title of a 1938 book, and it was often applied (along with derivative forms such as "fifth columnism" and "fifth columnist") to Nazi supporters within foreign nations during World War II.

Word - 89

THERIAC \THEER-ee-ak\ noun

1 : a mixture of many drugs and honey formerly held to be an antidote to poison

*2 : cure-all

Example sentence:
"Chicken soup may not really be a theriac," said Helen, sniffling between spoonfuls, "but there certainly is something comforting about eating it when you’re feeling sick."

Did you know?

There really is no such thing as a single remedy for all that ails us. But that hasn't kept English speakers from creating, not just a single word, but several words, that mean "cure-all": "catholicon," "elixir," "nostrum," "panacea," and today's word, "theriac." When we first used "theriac," it meant "an antidote for poison" -- for any and all poisons, that is. That's how our Roman and Greek forebears used their "theriaca" and "theriake," which derive ultimately from the Greek word for "wild animal." The first theriac was supposedly created by the first-century Greek physician Andromachus, whose concoction consisted of some 70 drugs pulverized with honey. Medieval physicians created even more elaborate theriacs to dose a plague-dreading populace, for whom the possibility of a cure-all didn't seem too wild a notion at all.