Thy name is

"______, thy name is ______"is asnowcloneused to indicate the completeness with which something or somebody (indicated by the second part) embodies a particular quality (indicated by the first part), usually a negative one.

History

In most instances, the usage is an allusion to theShakespeareanplayHamlet(I, ii, 146). In this work, the title character is chastised by his uncle (and new stepfather), Claudius, for grieving his father so much, calling it unmanly. In his resultant soliloquy, Hamlet denounces his mother's swift remarriage with the statement, "Frailty, thy name is woman."He thus describes all of womankind as frail and weak in character.The phrase is recognized as one of the "memorable expressions" from the play to become "proverbial".

In the bookIdiom Structure in Englishby Adam Makkai, the author asserts that the phrase is included among English idioms that are expressed in a "standard format" and whose usage "signals to the hearer that he is using an authority in underscoring his own opinion."Researchers Andrew Littlejohn and Sandhya Rao Mehta acknowledged that the famous quote rendered not only adiscursiveuse, but aconstructionalone as well,noting that "the structure itself can be used as a salient, but neutral equation formula...'noun thy name is noun.'"

Examples

Law

Supreme Court JusticeAntonin Scalia,dissenting from the Court's decision in King v. Burwell, upholding thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act,repeatedly used the construction to criticize the Court's majority opinion, stating: "Understatement, thy name is an opinion on the Affordable Care Act!"; "Impossible possibility, thy name is an opinion on the Affordable Care Act!"; and "Contrivance, thy name is an opinion on the Affordable Care Act!" (25 June 2015)

Quoted

Amos Bronson Alcottfamously said ofWilliam Ellery Channingin 1871, "Whim, thy name is Channing." He was referring to Channing'sTranscendentalistpoetry style.

Literature

• The poetAnne Sextontitled a poem "Divorce, Thy Name Is Woman".
• Borrowing directly fromHamlet,Edmond Dantès (disguised as Abbé Busoni) utters the phrase "Frailty, thy name is woman!" inThe Count of Monte Cristoafter learning that his fiancée, Mercédès, has married his rival Fernand.
• In theJames JoycenovelUlysses,Leopold Bloom utters the phrase, "Frailty, thy name is marriage," in response to a quip.
• In theClive Cusslernovel "Plague Ship",Juan Cabrillo quips," Ego, thy name is Gomez, "to Corporation helicopter pilot Gomez Adams after he brags about his perfect takeoff.
• InStephen Kingshort storyHerman Wouk Is Still Alive,Ollie responds to his friend, "Ingratitude, thy name is woman".

Music

• The Half Man Half Biscuit song "Whiteness, Thy Name Is Meltonian", from the 1993 albumThis Leaden Pall,refers to a brand of None-More-White shoe polish.
• The lyrics "Frailty, thy name is weakness. Vengeance, thy name is pain" appear in theDark Tranquillitysong "...Of Melancholy Burning".

Television

• SamanthaonBewitchedsays to Darrin, "Vanity, thy name is human" (1.8; 1964).
• InTaxi(1982),Jim,on learning that Zena is to marry another man (whilst believing that she is still with Louis): "Oh,perfidy!Thy name is woman! "
• Bart Simpsonsays, "Comedy, thy name is Krusty" inThe Simpsonsepisode "Krusty Gets Busted"(1990).
• Danny TanneronFull Housesays "Loneliness, thy name is Danny" (in the episode "A Date with Fate",1994).
• Professor FarnsworthonFuturamasays in his recorded message, "Oh vanity, thy name is Professor Farnsworth" (2.15; 1999).
• Referring to his wife,Ray BaroneonEverybody Loves Raymond(in episode 19, "The Canister", ofthe show's fifth season,2001), says, "Devil, thy name is woman!"
• Gil GrissomonCSI:Crime Scene Investigationsays, "Vanity, thy name is Hodges" (6.13; 2005), referring to another CSI, David Hodges, after walking in on him trying to color some of his greying hair with a sharpie while looking intensely at his reflection in a piece of lab equipment.
• Dr. Perry Cox on Scrubs says to Dr. Elliot Reid, "Hypocrisy, thy name is you" (in the episode "My Inconvenient Truth", 2007).
• Winn SchottonSupergirlsays to James Olsen, "Jealousy, thy name is Olsen" (1.18; 2016), when Olsen denied he had a look after seeing how Kara talks to Barry Allen.
• InCommunity (TV series),afterJeffrefuses to wear short shorts to play pool, Coach Bogner says "Vanity, thy name is... his name. It's first day I didn't catch it."
• In theSpongeBob SquarePantsepisode "Plankton's Army,"Planktonexclaims, "Victory, thy name is Plankton" upon assembling the titular army (3.18b, 2004).
• In theTed Lassoepisode "Carol of the Bells," Ted exclaims, "Hubris, thy name is Ted" having seen his son prefer a gift to his company.

Gaming

• InTetsuya Takahashi'sXenosaga Episode I,when Albedo kidnaps the realian MOMO in order to extract the Y-Data implemented into her by her late father Joachim Mizrahi, he holds a short speech in which he addresses her with the words "Frailty, thy name is women." He then goes on by stating "No...that's not right. You little realians weren't even born from a women's womb," referring to the artificial nature of her existence. (Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. (2003. Xenosaga Episode I (PS2 Version)[Video game]. Tokio: Bandai Namco Entertainment.)

References

Works cited

• Buell, Lawrence(1973). "Ellery Channing: The Major Phase of a Minor Poet".Literary Transcendentalism: Style and Vision in the American Renaissance.Ithaca; London:Cornell University Press.pp.239–262.ISBN978-1-5017-0766-7.JSTOR10.7591/j.ctt1g69x7r.
• Makkai, Adam (1 January 1972). Walter de Gruyter (ed.).Idiom Structure in English.The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton & Co. N.V.
• Lederer, Richard (11 May 2010).The Miracle of Language.New York, New York: Simon and Schuster.ISBN978-0671028114.
• Littlejohn, Andrew; Rao Mehta, Sandhya (4 December 2012).Language Studies: Stretching the Boundaries.Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.ISBN978-1443839723.

External links

• "Frailty, thy name is woman",fromThe New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy