Croesus

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The Word of the Day for November 11 is:

Croesus   \KREE-sus\   noun 
     : a very rich man 

Example sentence: 
     John D. Rockefeller became an American Croesus by dominating the oil 
business in the late 1800s.

Did you know? 
     The original Croesus was a 6th-century B.C. king of Lydia, an ancient 
kingdom in what is now Turkey. Croesus conquered many surrounding regions, grew 
very wealthy, and became the subject of legends. In one legend, he was visited 
by Solon, the wise Athenian lawgiver. (Historians say this isn't 
chronologically possible, but it makes a good story.) Solon supposedly told 
Croesus, who thought he had everything: "Account no man happy before his 
death." These words made Croesus angry, and he threw the lawmaker out of his 
court. Croesus would rethink Solon's pronouncement later when his empire was 
overthrown by the Persians. Croesus' name shows up in the phrase "rich as 
Croesus," meaning "filthy rich," and it has also entered English as a generic 
term for someone extremely wealthy.





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