feet of clay
having unknown weaknesses or faults
TRANSLATION
(to have) feet of clay = eine verborgene Schwäche haben, auf tönernen Füße stehen --- GOOGLE INDEX feet of clay: approximately 100,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The United States has more potential military power to dominate Asia today than Britain had in 1911, but in one important way the military giant has FEET OF CLAY.
(Asia Times Online)
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Mao Zedong may have famously proclaimed that "women hold up half the sky," but many of today's Chinese career women feel their high-flying ambitions have FEET OF CLAY.
(Bloomberg.com)
(Asia Times Online)
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Mao Zedong may have famously proclaimed that "women hold up half the sky," but many of today's Chinese career women feel their high-flying ambitions have FEET OF CLAY.
(Bloomberg.com)
Did you
know?
feet of clay (sometimes shortened to "clay feet")
idiom
- an underlying weakness or fault
(American Heritage Dictionary)
---
For anyone interested in the origin of words and phrases, the Bible is valuable source of interesting information. Many everyday English expressions can be traced to passages in the Bible. The expression "feet of clay" is a good example. In the Book of Daniel (2:31-40), King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that Daniel describes and then interprets:
"You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendour, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.
"The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze."
"Its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay."
"You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them."
Daniel is prophesising the collapse of a series of four kingdoms, using the statue as a metaphor. He suggests the kingdoms are actually weak because their underlying structure - the feet - are partially made of clay, which of course is easily broken compared to precious metals such as gold and silver. Thus in a figurative sense, something or someone that has feet of clay has a bad quality that is not readily apparent.
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"I often ask myself how many internet start-ups have feet of clay."
idiom
- an underlying weakness or fault
(American Heritage Dictionary)
---
For anyone interested in the origin of words and phrases, the Bible is valuable source of interesting information. Many everyday English expressions can be traced to passages in the Bible. The expression "feet of clay" is a good example. In the Book of Daniel (2:31-40), King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that Daniel describes and then interprets:
"You, O king, were looking and behold, there was a single great statue; that statue, which was large and of extraordinary splendour, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was awesome.
"The head of that statue was made of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze."
"Its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay."
"You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands, and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and crushed them."
Daniel is prophesising the collapse of a series of four kingdoms, using the statue as a metaphor. He suggests the kingdoms are actually weak because their underlying structure - the feet - are partially made of clay, which of course is easily broken compared to precious metals such as gold and silver. Thus in a figurative sense, something or someone that has feet of clay has a bad quality that is not readily apparent.
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"I often ask myself how many internet start-ups have feet of clay."
