Word-Built World: feet of clay

July 18, 2025 Mike Zonta Leave a comment

Illustration: Anu Garg + AI

A.Word.A.Daywith Anu Garg

feet of clay

PRONUNCIATION:

(FEET ov KLAY)

MEANING:

noun: A hidden weakness or flaw in someone otherwise strong and admired.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Old English fot (foot) + claeg (clay). Earliest documented use: 1814.

NOTES:

In the Biblical story narrated in Daniel 2, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream in which he sees a huge statue. Its head is gold, chest and arms silver, belly and thighs bronze, legs iron, and feet partly iron and partly clay. Daniel interprets the dream as signifying the weakness of the kingdom. See also: Achilles’ heel.

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Quotes

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— Edgar Allan Poe

“Give thanks to unknown blessings already on their way.”
— Native American proverb at cafe in San Francisco

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
–e.e. cummings

Consciousness, sexuality, androgyny, futurism, space, the arts, science, astrology, democracy, humor, books, movies and more

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Word-Built World: feet of clay

feet of clay

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Consciousness, sexuality, androgyny, futurism, space, the arts, science, astrology, democracy, humor, books, movies and more