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Dire Straits and Furies
Dire and fury share a history in Roman mythology, as each of these words is connected to the Erinyes, the avenging and terrifying deities of ancient myth who tormented criminals. The Romans referred to these goddesses as either the Dirae or the Furiae. The former is from the Latin word dirus, from which dire is descended, and the latter comes from furere, from where we get fury. The word dire is often found in conjunction with straits; in dire straits is used of a situation that is very bad or difficult. Our records indicate that this phrase began to be used in English at the end of the 18th century, when it appeared in Francis Fawkes’s The Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius: “When now the heroes through the vast profound, Reach the dire straits with rocks encompass’d round.”
Synonyms
Examples of fury in a Sentence
Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2024
Hurricane Milton followed the catastrophic Hurricane Helene, which unleashed its fury upon the southern Appalachians roughly two weeks ago, after making landfall as a Category 4 storm in Florida's Big Bend — the most powerful storm on record for the region.
—Alexis Simmerman, Austin American-Statesman, 10 Oct. 2024
Read more Trump remarks about shots fired 'through the fake news' spark fury online
Who is Ann Selzer?
—David Faris, Newsweek, 3 Nov. 2024
Summon the fury of the elements and turn the X-Men’s most electric leader into your next commander.
—Jennifer Maas, Variety, 18 Oct. 2024
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Dictionary Entries Near fury
Cite this Entry
“Fury.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fury. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.
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fury
noun
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