Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun informal A
unit ofmeasure ofpulchritude , corresponding to the amount ofbeauty required to launch oneship .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From the SI prefix milli- (indicating a thousandth) + Helen, of Troy, the maiden so beautiful that her abduction by Paris sparked the Trojan War and was said, in Christopher Marlowe's 1604 Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, to have ‘launched a thousand ships’.
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sionnach commented on the word millihelen
unit of beauty; amount sufficient to launch a single ship
February 20, 2007
reesetee commented on the word millihelen
What a great word! I presume this derives from Helen of Troy?
February 20, 2007
wedunning@earthlink.net commented on the word millihelen
Yes, from Helen of Troy, in the phrase of Christopher Marlowe's Faustus: "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships...?" A milliHelen is a unit of gorgeousness sufficient to launch just one ship. A microHelen is enough to get one, maybe two, sailors all excited. Not exactly ugly, but fairly run-of-the-mill mud-fence sort of a mug, y'know?
Bill Dunning
Created by Isaac Asimov, so I'm told.
September 1, 2008
sionnach commented on the word millihelen
David Lance Goines, in this very funny essay Helen of Troy , argues that the definition needs to be a little more complicated, to reflect Helen's accomplishments accurately.
The exact citation from Marlowe states that Helen's face "launched a thousand ships, and burnt the topless towers of Ilium", suggesting that mere ship-launching ability is not enough, that any candidate measure of pulchritude also needs to capture skill as an arsonist.
This leads to a revised definition of the millihelen as "beauty sufficient to launch one Homeric warship and burn down a house".
November 3, 2008
bilby commented on the word millihelen
Consider also inviting picohelen to your next party.
November 3, 2008
maryw commented on the word millihelen
Natalie Haynes, Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths (New York: Harper Perennial, 2022 (first pub. in UK in 2020)), p. 59, citing Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov Laughs Again (New York: Harper-Collins, 1992), p. 200
November 26, 2022