Achilles heel

See also: Achilles' heel

English

Alternative forms

• Achilles' heel

Etymology

From the Greek hero Achilles, whom according to legend his mother held by the heel when she dipped him in the River Styx, making him invulnerable everywhere except on his heel. He was later killed by an arrow wound to the heel.

Although the legend is ancient, the phrase only entered English in the 19th century. It is used as a metaphor for vulnerability, as in the earliest citation, an essay by Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Friend; a literary, moral and political weekly paper, 1810: "Ireland, that vulnerable heel of the British Achilles!"

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˌkɪl.iːz ˈhiːl/

Noun

Achilles heel (plural Achilles heels)

1. A vulnerability in an otherwise strong situation.
2. (anatomy) The Achilles' tendon, the tendo Achillis.

Synonyms

• (vulnerability): soft spot, vulnerability, weakness, weak spot, kryptonite
• See also Thesaurus:weak spot

Related terms

• Achilles
• Achilles' tendon

Translations

vulnerability in an otherwise strong situation

• Arabic: نُقْطَة ضَعِيف f (nuqṭa(t) ḍaʕīf)
• Armenian: աքիլեսյան գարշապար (hy) (akʻilesyan garšapar)
• Asturian: calcañu d'Aquiles (ast) m
• Bulgarian: Ахилесова пета f (Ahilesova peta)
• Catalan: taló d'Aquil·les m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 弱項／弱项 (ruòxiàng), 弱项 (ruòxiàng), 軟肋／软肋 (zh) (ruǎnlèi), 软肋 (zh) (ruǎnlèi), 阿喀琉斯之踵 (Ākāliúsī zhī zhǒng), 致命要害

• Czech: Achilova pata f
• Danish: akilleshæl (da) c
• Dutch: achilleshiel (nl)
• Finnish: akilleenkantapää (fi)
• French: talon d’Achille (fr) m
• Galician: talón de Aquiles m
• Georgian: აქილევსის ქუსლი (akilevsis kusli)
• German: Achillesferse (de) f
• Greek: αχίλλειος πτέρνα (el) f (achílleios ptérna)
• Interlingua: calce de Achilles, talon de Achilles
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: tallone di Achille, tallone d'Achille m
• Japanese: アキレス腱 (Akiresuken)
• Korean: 아킬레스 건 (akilleseu geon)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: akilleshæl (no) m

  Nynorsk: akilleshæl m

• Persian: پاشنه آشیل (pāšne-ye-āšīl)
• Polish: pięta Achillesa (pl) f
• Portuguese: calcanhar de Aquiles (pt) m
• Romanian: călcâiul lui Ahile (ro) n
• Russian: ахилле́сова пята́ (ru) f (axillésova pjatá)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Ахилова пета f

  Roman: Ahilova peta f

• Spanish: talón de Aquiles m
• Swedish: akilleshäl (sv) c
• Tagalog: sakong ni Akiles, sakong ni Aquiles

Achilles' tendon — see Achilles' tendon

See also

• feet of clay
• hamartia