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sop to Cerberus. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
sop to Cerberus, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
sop to Cerberus in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From Virgil's Aeneid, where the Sibyl throws Cerberus a loaf laced with honey and herbs to induce sleep.
Noun
sop to Cerberus
- Something given or done to pacify or bribe.
- to give/throw a sop to Cerberus
1914 January, Alfred Hayes, “The Relation of Music to Poetry”, in The Atlantic:He has thrown a sop to Cerberus, and is consequently now acclaimed in sacred circles to which entrance had long been denied him.
1921 October, Maxwell H. H. Macartney, “An Ex-Enemy in Berlin to-Day”, in The Atlantic:For a moment there was a profound silence all round, and I was beginning to think that I should be accidentally shoved off the moving train, when a voice asked, ‘Have you got any English cigarettes? ’ As it happened I had a couple of packets of a brand that I very much disliked, and I distributed the contents of one all round. This sop to Cerberus had the happiest results.
2017 April 9, William Keegan, “Brexit hasn’t happened yet – and it is changing all the time”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:By calling the referendum in the first place, Cameron was offering a sop to the Cerberus of the Tory Brexiters. But in Greek mythology Cerberus was never satisfied, and demanded more.
Further reading
- “sop to Cerberus”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “a sop to Cerberus”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- Elizabeth Knowles, editor (2000), “give a sop to Cerberus”, in The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 1026.