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Achilles' heelMeaningA weak or vulnerable factor. Origin
Although the legend is ancient, the phrase wasn't picked up in English until the 19th century. It is used as a metaphor for vulnerability, as in this early citation, an essay by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Friend; a literary, moral and political weekly paper, 1810:
See also, the Samuel Taylor Coleridge phrase - suspension of disbelief. Phrasefinder is also on
Tudor Phrases and Sayings - a book on the meanings and origins of the phrases and sayings that Shakespeare and Henry VIII used that we use still use every day. |
The
legend of Achilles has it that he was dipped into the river Styx by his mother
Thetis in order to make him invulnerable. His heel wasn't covered by the water
and he was later killed by an arrow wound to his heel.
