Often on television or in journalistic articles there is such an expression as "reach its climax." What does this phrase mean? Apogee - what is it? What is the origin of this word and does it have synonyms?
Etymology
Many of the words that we use in everyday speech came to our language from Latin or Greek. Including the word "apogee". What's this word? Does he have a native Russian counterpart? Apogaion consists of two parts, which are translated into Russian as "peak" and "earth". There is no exact analogue of this word in Russian.
Value
Of course, not only the Russian language from Greece came the word "apogee". What this word means is known to both the British and Germans. Apogee is the climax, the peak. The Greeks used this word when it came to the point as far as possible from the Earth. True, they did not know exactly where she was.
The highest degree of something, the limit, the extreme, the climax - all this is the apogee. What this word means depends on the context. The apogee is the point of the lunar orbit as far as possible from the Earth. But today this word is often used when it comes to something that has nothing to do with astronomy.
"His power has reached its zenith" - what can this word mean in this context? This phrase probably speaks of some ruler whose power has reached extreme points, that is, his power has become absolute.
Synonyms
A few words close to their apogee are given above. The synonyms can also be words: peak, zenith, maximum.
Pillars of Hercules - phraseological unit which can be replaced in some cases by the word “apogee”. What does he mean? In one of the 12 exploits of Hercules, aka Hercules, parted the tall pillars. The ancients considered these mythical columns the end of the world, believing that there was nothing behind them. That is, both the apogee and the pillars of Hercules are the most distant, extreme point of the Earth.
Often the Greek borrowing, the meaning of which we examined above, is used to describe the feelings and conditions of man. Examples:
- His irritation reached its climax.
- That day she knew the apogee of inspiration.