appointment in Samarra

English

Etymology

Literary reference to an ancient Babylonian myth, transcribed by W. Somerset Maugham, in which Death is both the narrator and a central character.

Noun

appointment in Samarra (plural appointments in Samarra)

1. (euphemistic) One's death.
   • 1980, Sallie Nichols, Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey, page 232:

     Perhaps if each of us could truly accept his "appointment in Samarra," the activity of that skeleton in card thirteen would not seem so threatening.

   • 2011, Bob Markus, I'll Play These: A Sports Writer's Life, page 178:

     John O'Hara kept his appointment in Samarra Saturday at the age of 65, and even though I am aware that the Black Hawks are romping toward a Stanley Cup triumph and the Cubs are opening at home tomorrow and the world's greatest golfers are concluding an epic struggle over Augusta National's picturesque acres, I'm going to devote this column to John O'Hara because I think I owe it to him.