People often use the word bird figuratively for an albatross. That which brings anxiety or trouble can be called an albatross. And a cheerful way of expressing the idea of having a serious problem is to say that there is an albatross around the neck. leading use in this figurative expression? How does the actual speech begin? What truths, half-truths, and fables are mixed together in the expression albatross around the neck?
The English word albatross is probably a change. alcatrace or alcatras (“frigate bird”), from the Spanish and Portuguese alcatraz (“pelican”), which goes back to the Arabic word It is a type of seabird. The change from alcatras to albatross is from the Latin albus (“white”), the bird is black and the albatross is usually white (sometimes combined with brown or black ).
An albatross is any of several marine species (over twelve species), some with wingspans of up to eleven feet. A master of gliding, the albatross can remain on the wing almost motionless for many hours at a time. Therefore, the sailors believed that the albatross had magical powers.
It was also believed that the albatross, flying over the ships without the sea, contained the souls of lost sailors, sailors who had once been companions. below Many sailors believed that disaster or death had injured or killed the bird.
Despite popular belief, some sailors actually killed and ate albatrosses. Captain James Cook, for example, kills some of his memories during his voyages. On December 24, 1768, he wrote: “We shot an albatross, which measured between the tips of the wings nine feet and an inch.” On January 26, 1869, he wrote, “The albatross liked to eat best.” . An ancient sailor (that is, a “born sailor”) tells how he, when he was in a ship at sea, killed an albatross for no apparent reason. Afterwards the wind stopped blowing and the ship could not reach the port for fresh water.
He assumed that the event was due to the death of the albatross. Angry, the ancient picked up the dead bird and hung it around the man’s neck, as a symbol of crime and punishment. “
Today, that imagination is generative, so that whatever creates deeply. , constant anxiety can be called an albatross. And the obstacle that prevents its completion is an albatross around the neck.
(Principal sources: Oxford Dictionary; Darryl Lyman, Jonathan David Publishers Dictionary, www.jdbooks.com
