A victory at too great a cost is called?

Shakes · #1 12-02-2009, 03:33 PM

The word escapes me. It's called " ______ victory"

I think it's commonly used when referring to war. It basically means that even tho' you won; it's hard to celebrate because of the tremendous loss you suffered.

Anybody know what I'm talking about?

Thanks in advance.

villa · #2 12-02-2009, 03:33 PM

Phyrric.

Jas09 · #3 12-02-2009, 03:34 PM

Pyrrhic Victory

PaperBlob · #4 12-02-2009, 03:34 PM

Pyrrhic is the word you're looking for.

fandango · #5 12-02-2009, 03:34 PM

Actually, the correct answer is Pyrrhic victory

(d'oh, beaten by seconds!)

Squink · #6 12-02-2009, 03:35 PM

Pyrrhic

remember the rule:
H after yrr, except when you're spelling something different.

UncleRojelio · #7 12-02-2009, 03:37 PM

I think the word is Pyrrhic.

jayjay · #8 12-02-2009, 03:39 PM

It's Rio, by Duran Duran...

robardin · #9 12-02-2009, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squink

Pyrrhic

remember the rule:
H after yrr, except when you're spelling something different.

As long as you can spell "myrrh" correctly you can also use this mnemonic sentence: "Convincing the infant Jesus that myrrh was a kingly gift was a Pyrrhic victory of sorts for the Third Wise Man: he managed to re-gift something on an unprecedented scale, but went down for all time as giving That Thing That Nobody Knows What It Is And Would Regift At The Earliest Opportunity".

Earl Snake-Hips Tucker · #10 12-02-2009, 03:47 PM

And there's the worse Cadmean victory.

Shakes · #11 12-02-2009, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by villa

Phyrric.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jas09

Pyrrhic Victory

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaperBlob

Pyrrhic is the word you're looking for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fandango

Actually, the correct answer is Pyrrhic victory

(d'oh, beaten by seconds!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Squink

Pyrrhic

remember the rule:
H after yrr, except when you're spelling something different.

Quote:

Originally Posted by UncleRojelio

I think the word is Pyrrhic.

Wow! thanks guys. That's gotta be some sort of record or something!

Polycarp · #12 12-02-2009, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayjay

It's Rio, by Duran Duran...

No, it's Pyrrhio, by ,,,,

DWMarch · #13 12-03-2009, 01:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shakes

Wow! thanks guys. That's gotta be some sort of record or something!

I take it you haven't seen that thread about the scalar weapons from the early 20th century then...

gigi · #14 12-03-2009, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robardin

As long as you can spell "myrrh" correctly you can also use this mnemonic sentence: "Convincing the infant Jesus that myrrh was a kingly gift was a Pyrrhic victory of sorts for the Third Wise Man: he managed to re-gift something on an unprecedented scale, but went down for all time as giving That Thing That Nobody Knows What It Is And Would Regift At The Earliest Opportunity".

TTTNKWIIAWRATEO ! It's for the kids!

RandMcnally · #15 12-03-2009, 04:51 PM

"Another victory like this and I shall be ruined!"

Qadgop the Mercotan · #16 12-03-2009, 05:07 PM

"If this is victory, our hands are too small to hold it"

-JRRT

Slithy Tove · #17 12-03-2009, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RandMcnally

"Another victory like this and I shall be ruined!"

Divorced guy, huh?

Skald the Rhymer · #18 12-03-2009, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qadgop the Mercotan

"If this is victory, our hands are too small to hold it"

-JRRT

This is from the Appendices to Lord of the Rings, for those who aren't me, QtC, What Exit?, Elendil's Heir, well, he's back, or Malacandra; it is uttered by one of the Dwarves after a ruinous battle with the Orcs in Moria.

jayjay · #19 12-03-2009, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skald the Rhymer

This is from the Appendices to Lord of the Rings, for those who aren't me, QtC, What Exit?, Elendil's Heir, well, he's back, or Malacandra; it is uttered by one of the Dwarves after a ruinous battle with the Orcs in Moria.

*ahem*

Skald the Rhymer · #20 12-03-2009, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayjay

*ahem*

Holy Zeus, but you're high maintenance during Advent. Fine.

This is from the Appendices to Lord of the Rings, for those who aren't me, jayjay, QtC, What Exit?, Elendil's Heir, well, he's back, or Malacandra; it is uttered by one of the Dwarves after a ruinous battle with the Orcs in Moria.

jayjay · #21 12-03-2009, 05:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skald the Rhymer

Holy Zeus, but you're high maintenance during Advent. Fine.

Can I help it that my Advent calendar had a candy corn instead of a chocolate today?

Knorf · #22 12-03-2009, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skald the Rhymer

This is from the Appendices to Lord of the Rings, for those who aren't me, QtC, What Exit?, Elendil's Heir, well, he's back, or Malacandra; it is uttered by one of the Dwarves after a ruinous battle with the Orcs in Moria.

*ahem*

fandango · #23 12-03-2009, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gigi

TTTNKWIIAWRATEO ! It's for the kids!

What are you giving him a balm for? It might bite him!

Skald the Rhymer · #24 12-03-2009, 05:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knorf

*ahem*

Whereas you are ALWAYS high-maintenance.

This is from the Appendices to Lord of the Rings, for those who aren't me, knorf, jayjay, QtC, What Exit?, Elendil's Heir, well, he's back, or Malacandra; it is uttered by one of the Dwarves after a ruinous battle with the Orcs in Moria.

Bartman · #25 12-03-2009, 10:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skald the Rhymer

Whereas you are ALWAYS high-maintenance.

This is from the Appendices to Lord of the Rings, for those who aren't me, knorf, jayjay, QtC, What Exit?, Elendil's Heir, well, he's back, or Malacandra; it is uttered by one of the Dwarves after a ruinous battle with the Orcs in Moria.

*ahem* Keep counting. There are far more of us Tolkien geeks on SMDB than you are likely to list.

dtilque · #26 12-04-2009, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fandango

What are you giving him a balm for? It might bite him!

Do not taunt Happy Fun Balm!

Chief Pedant · #27 12-04-2009, 06:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shakes

Wow! thanks guys. That's gotta be some sort of record or something!

Google returns "Pyrrhic Victory" as the first hit for "victory at too great a cost" in 0.18 seconds, so we at the Dope are still lagging.

It even gets it with "to" instead of "too" and corrects the error to boot.

Let's step it up a notch, kids. Even Cecil must be starting to sweat.

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1...o+great+a+cost

Koxinga · #28 12-04-2009, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chief Pedant

Google returns "Pyrrhic Victory" as the first hit for "victory at too great a cost" in 0.18 seconds, so we at the Dope are still lagging.

It even gets it with "to" instead of "too" and corrects the error to boot.

Let's step it up a notch, kids. Even Cecil must be starting to sweat.

http://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1...o+great+a+cost

Howzabout this: "What's that phrase for when you predict something based on the assumption that all other conditions stay the same?" I actually heard some dude asking this outside of business school one day. And threw out the answer to him as I walked past.

Vorpal Blade · #29 12-04-2009, 07:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koxinga

Howzabout this: "What's that phrase for when you predict something based on the assumption that all other conditions stay the same?" I actually heard some dude asking this outside of business school one day. And threw out the answer to him as I walked past.

Cerberus Paribus (unless I fucked up the spelling)

muldoonthief · #30 12-04-2009, 07:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chief Pedant

Google returns "Pyrrhic Victory" as the first hit for "victory at too great a cost" in 0.18 seconds, so we at the Dope are still lagging.

It even gets it with "to" instead of "too" and corrects the error to boot.

Let's step it up a notch, kids. Even Cecil must be starting to sweat.

Sure, but does google quote Tolkein, Monty Python, and taunt Skald the Rhymer at the same time? I think not.

jayjay · #31 12-04-2009, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bikebloke

Cerberus Paribus (unless I fucked up the spelling)

I thought that was "All other things being three-headed dogs".

Ravenman · #32 12-04-2009, 08:49 AM

A thread on "victory at great cost" and nobody has mentioned the New York Yankees yet? Boy, there aren't a lot of sports fans in GQ.

robardin · #33 12-04-2009, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ravenman

A thread on "victory at great cost" and nobody has mentioned the New York Yankees yet? Boy, there aren't a lot of sports fans in GQ.

But far from being "ruined" by winning the World Series with a $200MM+ payroll, the furnaces are merely stoked for shoveling in more megabucks.

ShibbOleth · #34 12-04-2009, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by robardin

But far from being "ruined" by winning the World Series with a $200MM+ payroll, the furnaces are merely stoked for shoveling in more megabucks.

Yeah, for the Yankees that's just a decent ROI; for the Marlins I think they had to melt them all down and sell them for their parts. Or something.

Skald the Rhymer · #35 12-04-2009, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bartman

*ahem* Keep counting. There are far more of us Tolkien geeks on SMDB than you are likely to list.

Rage, vengeance, acid-spitting hummingbirds, yawn.

Skald the Rhymer · #36 12-04-2009, 09:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muldoonthief

Sure, but does google quote Tolkein, Monty Python, and taunt Skald the Rhymer at the same time? I think not.

You know the drill.

Ponderoid · #37 12-04-2009, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koxinga

Howzabout this: "What's that phrase for when you predict something based on the assumption that all other conditions stay the same?"

Wow. According to Google, it's: "A victory at to great a cost is called?"!

ElvisL1ves · #38 12-04-2009, 02:49 PM

Are you sure it isn't a Pyrrhic victory?

The Great Sun Jester · #39 12-04-2009, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ElvisL1ves

Are you sure it isn't a Pyrrhic victory?

Yes, like the victory realized by the allies after WWI. Sort of a 1910's style victory.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Qadgop the Mercotan

"If this is victory, our hands are too small to hold it"

-JRRT

Ok, I tried, but I just don't get it. In the context of the OP I take it this quote refers to a battle that cost more in lives than it was worth, which would make it a tiny victory in my mind. So the hands would be too BIG to hold it.

Or does it refer to a battle, the gains from which will be impossible to realize because the current victors are about to get their collective asses whupped in a retributive strike?

gigi · #40 12-04-2009, 03:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fandango

What are you giving him a balm for? It might bite him!

A balm? Who told you to use a balm?

outlierrn · #41 12-04-2009, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jayjay

Can I help it that my Advent calendar had a candy corn instead of a chocolate today?

Well, they can't all be winners can they, kid?

just be grateful it wasn't an aspirin

Leo Bloom · #42 12-04-2009, 08:28 PM

Pyhrrus, a disappointed pier...

Source:
Opening of chapter 2, Nestor, from Joyce, _Ulysses_:

*-- You, Cochrane, what city sent for him?
-- Tarentum, sir.
-- Very good. Well?
-- There was a battle, sir.
-- Very good. Where?
The boy's blank face asked the blank window.
Fabled by the daughters of memory. And yet it was in some way if not
as memory fabled it. A phrase, then, of impatience, thud of Blake's wings of
excess. I hear the ruin of all space, shattered glass and toppling masonry,
and time one livid final flame. What's left us then?
-- I forget the place, sir. 279 B. C.
-- Asculum, Stephen said, glancing at the name and date in the gorescarred
book.
-- Yes, sir. And he said: Another victory like that and we are done for.
That phrase the world had remembered. A dull ease of the mind.
From a hill above a corpsestrewn plain a general speaking to his officers,
leaned upon his spear. Any general to any officers. They lend ear.
-- You, Armstrong, Stephen said. What was the end of Pyrrhus?
-- End of Pyrrhus, sir?
-- I know, sir. Ask me, sir, Comyn said.
-- Wait. You, Armstrong. Do you know anything about Pyrrhus?
A bag of figrolls lay snugly in Armstrong's satchel. He curled them
between his palms at whiles and swallowed them softly. Crumbs adhered to
the tissue of his lips. A sweetened boy's breath. Welloff people, proud that
their eldest son was in the navy. Vico road, Dalkey.
-- Pyrrhus, sir? Pyrrhus, a pier.

ShibbOleth · #43 12-05-2009, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gigi

A balm? Who told you to use a balm?

Maverick, there's a balm in the base?

Bartman · #44 12-05-2009, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Inigo Montoya

YOk, I tried, but I just don't get it. In the context of the OP I take it this quote refers to a battle that cost more in lives than it was worth, which would make it a tiny victory in my mind. So the hands would be too BIG to hold it.

Or does it refer to a battle, the gains from which will be impossible to realize because the current victors are about to get their collective asses whupped in a retributive strike?

OK, here is the 9¢ explanation. The senior chieftain of the dwarves having gone a bit loopy went on walkabout. While out and about he went to his family's ancestral home. Unfortunately said home was occupied by a whole lotta orcs. He was killed and his body mutilated. The orcs allowed his companion to go free to spread the tale.

The rest of the dwarves gathered together and waged a war of vengeance on the orcs. At the end of the war the dead chieftain's heir suggested the take up occupation of their ancestral city. This is the point the quote comes in. Basically they were too weakened by the war to actually gain and hold the spoils of their victory.